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KIDS' LIGHTNING INFORMATION AND SAFETY
by
Sabrina
Grown Ups' Lightning Stories
These lightning stories were sent to me by adults. Some are funny,
some are very sad.
Kelli, in San Francisco, California
I worked at a place called Philmont Scout Ranch in the Sangre de Cristo
Mountain range [in New Mexico]. I taught minimum impact backpacking to the
scouts. I also taught them how to avoid injury including bear maulings,
lightning, falling off of cliffs etc. Sometimes it was a challenge to get
people to believe that the mountains were very beautiful, but also very
unforgiving.
Here's a story from my first summer at Philmont.
Before any of the scouts would arrive, the rangers would spend one week
in small training groups. There were about 176 rangers a summer. We decided
that all 176 rangers would have their picture taken at the top of Mount
Baldy which was at roughly 12,000 feet. One crew was very late, so we
waited. Clouds began to form around the peak, and the last crew had
arrived. We quickly assembled for the picture. The head ranger took off
his hat and his hair stood straight up (a seeker as we call them.). He
yelled "RUN!" and all 179 rangers scrambled to get off the top of this
very steep mountain. Fortunately, no one was hurt.
Later that summer, during a storm, a ranger got out of his tent and stood
up to put a raincoat on. He was in a stand of trees, not near any
particulary tall ones, and he was struck by lightning. He died.
Jim in Prescott, Arizona
Soon after we moved to Arizona from California, a severe thunderstorm,
with much hail, rain, and thunder, decended upon us, and water falling
on the roof began overflowing the roof gutters that had become clogged
with pine needles. I, in a fit of tidiness, dragged out the trusty aluminum (!)
ladder, and during a lull in the downpour placed it under the clogged drain
and proceeded to climb up toward my cleaning chore. WHAM!
The sky ignited like a flashbulb and simultaneous thunder virtually
knocked me to the ground. See Jim run into the house!
Roger in Dallas, Texas.
Roger is a professional storm chaser for a storm
prediction center. He was almost hit by lightning when he was a kid.
He remembers the day it happened.
MY FIRST DANGEROUS ENCOUNTER WITH LIGHTNING
by Roger
On May 2, 1979, I was a sixth grader at Robert E. Lee Elementary School in
Dallas, and already an intense fan of severe weather. That spring, all
of the kids in my class usually started the day in home room, which was
Mrs. Camacho's art class, then moved on to a different class each hour.
Not that day. Starting in mid morning, the sky outside got very dark, as
thunderstorms formed over other parts of the Dallas area to our west
and south.
The principal came over the speaker system telling all the teachers that
there were tornado "alerts," and that no classes were to change until
he said so. He also said that we all may have to do the tornado drill
for real at any time. Mrs. Camacho turned on a TV to Channel 5, where
my favorite weatherman (Harold Taft) was breaking into the usual programs
every few minutes and looking as serious and worried as I had ever seen
him. By then, it was after 10 a.m., and he was telling everyone in
Dallas County to take shelter now. The principal must have been watching
in his office too; because we were all crouched in the hall within a
minute.
We took shelter for a few minutes, then were allowed back into class.
But the sky kept getting darker and darker. At noon, it was almost as
dark as night outside, and all the street lights were on. But the whole
sky was a deep, dark green, sometimes split by bright bolts of lightning!
Hail as big as golf balls started hitting the classroom windows, making a
lot of noise and scaring most of the kids. Not me! I absolutely loved it,
and felt lucky to be sitting by the window watching it all. Meanwhile,
at least half the other kids were in tears!
That storm passed, but the rest of that schoolday, we had at least 3 more
tornado warnings. We had to go into the hall each time and crouch down.
A series of violent thunderstorms called "supercells" kept going right
over Dallas, dropping hail and sometimes a tornado. One tornado destroyed
a school about 15 miles south of us. During one of those storms, I sneaked
away to the art supply room while the teacher had left, and got to see a
funnel cloud way off to the west!
When the 3:00 bell rang to end the school day, we were crouched in the hall
again. Being a stubborn kid and a weather freak, I thought, "They can't
make me stay here now, school's over and I have a storm to see!" I got up
and ran out the door to go home, with a couple of teachers running after
me. The teachers stopped at the door, while I just kept running toward
home.
By the time I ran halfway home, I knew this was one of the dumbest things
I had ever done. It was raining hard, with small hail, and very loud
thunder. I already knew that the shorter the time between the flash and
the boom, the closer the lightning strike. SO I knew I was gin serious
danger.
One bolt of lightning was so close that there was no time al all between
the flash and thunder. I heard a loud splitting sound and saw a bright
flash, then a slamming boom of thunder that I could feel my chest and
stomach. Within 10 seconds, there was another close call: I saw a
blinding flash come off the top of a telephone pole just 2 blocks ahead
of me, and heard an instant explosion of thunder. I was running down a
sidewalk toward home in fear of my life, as fast as I could. Around
the corner from my block, while I was running under a big pecan tree,
I blacked out.
When I woke up, I was lying in the wet grass under the tree, next to the
sidewalk. My head hurt; and my ears were ringing. It was still raining
hard, with loud thunder; but I was too dizzy to get up and run right away.
I had only been out for a minute or less; but I felt like a stiff, sore
zombie. I didn't figure out that it may have been lightning that knocked
me out until I stood up and saw a dead Doberman dog next to a chain-link
fence across the street.....
I stumbled home and told my mom that I might have been hit by lightning.
She called the medics, who told her that I was sore but otherwise OK --
no burns, no broken ear drum, and no signs I had suffered nerve damage from
an electric shock. They asked her if she wanted me in the hospital
overnight for evaluation. I insisted I was OK, just sore, and amazingly,
she went along with me and said "no."
My headache and earache went away that night; but I had ringing in my ears
off and on for a couple of weeks. On the way home from school a few days
later, I looked up in that pecan tree and saw burned bark down one side of
the trunk, to about 10 feet off the ground. The lightning bolt had jumped
between the tree and the metal fence across the street, and never hit me!
But I guessed it came as close as 5 feet to the top of my head, based on a
straight line from the bottom of the bark burns to the closest part of the
fence.
I had almost been killed by lightning; but that just made my intense
weather interest even more so. I went on to become a meteorologist,
hurricane and severe storms forecaster, and storm chaser. Somehow, that
bolt in the pecan tree didn't make me more afraid of lightning -- just a
lot more careful. I know that lightning can hit me any time I'm outside
near a storm, and that's a hazard I have to accept as a storm chaser. But
I give lightning the respect it deserves, staying in the car in a lot of
situations when other chasers would get out and risk being a bigger target.
The thing to realize is: Lightning could kill you suddenly -- without your
ever knowing it. That's why it's so important to know the lightning safety
rules and teach them to your family and friends. Lightning is so beautiful
to watch, but only from a safe place.
Sabrina
Kelli, in San Francisco, California
Roger is a professional storm chaser for a storm
prediction center. He was almost hit by lightning when he was a kid.
He remembers the day it happened.
by Roger
On May 2, 1979, I was a sixth grader at Robert E. Lee Elementary School in
Dallas, and already an intense fan of severe weather. That spring, all
of the kids in my class usually started the day in home room, which was
Mrs. Camacho's art class, then moved on to a different class each hour.
Not that day. Starting in mid morning, the sky outside got very dark, as
thunderstorms formed over other parts of the Dallas area to our west
and south.
The principal came over the speaker system telling all the teachers that
there were tornado "alerts," and that no classes were to change until
he said so. He also said that we all may have to do the tornado drill
for real at any time. Mrs. Camacho turned on a TV to Channel 5, where
my favorite weatherman (Harold Taft) was breaking into the usual programs
every few minutes and looking as serious and worried as I had ever seen
him. By then, it was after 10 a.m., and he was telling everyone in
Dallas County to take shelter now. The principal must have been watching
in his office too; because we were all crouched in the hall within a
minute.
We took shelter for a few minutes, then were allowed back into class.
But the sky kept getting darker and darker. At noon, it was almost as
dark as night outside, and all the street lights were on. But the whole
sky was a deep, dark green, sometimes split by bright bolts of lightning!
Hail as big as golf balls started hitting the classroom windows, making a
lot of noise and scaring most of the kids. Not me! I absolutely loved it,
and felt lucky to be sitting by the window watching it all. Meanwhile,
at least half the other kids were in tears!
That storm passed, but the rest of that schoolday, we had at least 3 more
tornado warnings. We had to go into the hall each time and crouch down.
A series of violent thunderstorms called "supercells" kept going right
over Dallas, dropping hail and sometimes a tornado. One tornado destroyed
a school about 15 miles south of us. During one of those storms, I sneaked
away to the art supply room while the teacher had left, and got to see a
funnel cloud way off to the west!
When the 3:00 bell rang to end the school day, we were crouched in the hall
again. Being a stubborn kid and a weather freak, I thought, "They can't
make me stay here now, school's over and I have a storm to see!" I got up
and ran out the door to go home, with a couple of teachers running after
me. The teachers stopped at the door, while I just kept running toward
home.
By the time I ran halfway home, I knew this was one of the dumbest things
I had ever done. It was raining hard, with small hail, and very loud
thunder. I already knew that the shorter the time between the flash and
the boom, the closer the lightning strike. SO I knew I was gin serious
danger.
One bolt of lightning was so close that there was no time al all between
the flash and thunder. I heard a loud splitting sound and saw a bright
flash, then a slamming boom of thunder that I could feel my chest and
stomach. Within 10 seconds, there was another close call: I saw a
blinding flash come off the top of a telephone pole just 2 blocks ahead
of me, and heard an instant explosion of thunder. I was running down a
sidewalk toward home in fear of my life, as fast as I could. Around
the corner from my block, while I was running under a big pecan tree,
I blacked out.
When I woke up, I was lying in the wet grass under the tree, next to the
sidewalk. My head hurt; and my ears were ringing. It was still raining
hard, with loud thunder; but I was too dizzy to get up and run right away.
I had only been out for a minute or less; but I felt like a stiff, sore
zombie. I didn't figure out that it may have been lightning that knocked
me out until I stood up and saw a dead Doberman dog next to a chain-link
fence across the street.....
I stumbled home and told my mom that I might have been hit by lightning.
She called the medics, who told her that I was sore but otherwise OK --
no burns, no broken ear drum, and no signs I had suffered nerve damage from
an electric shock. They asked her if she wanted me in the hospital
overnight for evaluation. I insisted I was OK, just sore, and amazingly,
she went along with me and said "no."
My headache and earache went away that night; but I had ringing in my ears
off and on for a couple of weeks. On the way home from school a few days
later, I looked up in that pecan tree and saw burned bark down one side of
the trunk, to about 10 feet off the ground. The lightning bolt had jumped
between the tree and the metal fence across the street, and never hit me!
But I guessed it came as close as 5 feet to the top of my head, based on a
straight line from the bottom of the bark burns to the closest part of the
fence.
I had almost been killed by lightning; but that just made my intense
weather interest even more so. I went on to become a meteorologist,
hurricane and severe storms forecaster, and storm chaser. Somehow, that
bolt in the pecan tree didn't make me more afraid of lightning -- just a
lot more careful. I know that lightning can hit me any time I'm outside
near a storm, and that's a hazard I have to accept as a storm chaser. But
I give lightning the respect it deserves, staying in the car in a lot of
situations when other chasers would get out and risk being a bigger target.
The thing to realize is: Lightning could kill you suddenly -- without your
ever knowing it. That's why it's so important to know the lightning safety
rules and teach them to your family and friends. Lightning is so beautiful
to watch, but only from a safe place.Grown Ups' Lightning Stories
These lightning stories were sent to me by adults. Some are funny,
some are very sad.
I worked at a place called Philmont Scout Ranch in the Sangre de Cristo
Mountain range [in New Mexico]. I taught minimum impact backpacking to the
scouts. I also taught them how to avoid injury including bear maulings,
lightning, falling off of cliffs etc. Sometimes it was a challenge to get
people to believe that the mountains were very beautiful, but also very
unforgiving.
Here's a story from my first summer at Philmont.
Before any of the scouts would arrive, the rangers would spend one week
in small training groups. There were about 176 rangers a summer. We decided
that all 176 rangers would have their picture taken at the top of Mount
Baldy which was at roughly 12,000 feet. One crew was very late, so we
waited. Clouds began to form around the peak, and the last crew had
arrived. We quickly assembled for the picture. The head ranger took off
his hat and his hair stood straight up (a seeker as we call them.). He
yelled "RUN!" and all 179 rangers scrambled to get off the top of this
very steep mountain. Fortunately, no one was hurt.
Later that summer, during a storm, a ranger got out of his tent and stood
up to put a raincoat on. He was in a stand of trees, not near any
particulary tall ones, and he was struck by lightning. He died.
Jim in Prescott, Arizona
Soon after we moved to Arizona from California, a severe thunderstorm,
with much hail, rain, and thunder, decended upon us, and water falling
on the roof began overflowing the roof gutters that had become clogged
with pine needles. I, in a fit of tidiness, dragged out the trusty aluminum (!)
ladder, and during a lull in the downpour placed it under the clogged drain
and proceeded to climb up toward my cleaning chore. WHAM!
The sky ignited like a flashbulb and simultaneous thunder virtually
knocked me to the ground. See Jim run into the house!
Roger in Dallas, Texas.
MY FIRST DANGEROUS ENCOUNTER WITH LIGHTNING
Brent in Dallas, Texas
Brent was hit by lightning when he was a kid, but no one believed him:
I am an adult now, but when I was in junior high school back in Leavenworth, Kansas, I was at my sister's house, a large old house with floor to ceiling windows. There was a severe storm going on and the tornado warning sirens went off. Everyone else had gone to the basement, I was walking across the living room when a bright flash came through the window and it felt like someone hit me in the chest real hard. I was knocked backwards about 6 feet and took off running to the basement. My chest hurt for several hours but no one believed my story.
End
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