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CoachB25 has just posted a sad story in the Illinois Forum concerning a high school student athlete in Carbondale, IL losing his life as a result of being struck by a lightning bolt at a track meet or practice. Unfortunately this will not be the last story of this nature to be told this season. Severe weather is a fact of life. The question is how do we go about minimizing its sometimes deadly impact?
I'm curious about what teams do to prevent injury or death caused by lightning striking athletes or fans. Please share your knowledge with the rest of us...your solution may save some lives.
Many outdoor athletic facilities are now protected with 'lightning protection systems', but people can only be truly protected if, after hearing a warning siren, they then seek proper shelter from the potentially deadly lightning instead of merely protecting themselves from the rain that is almost always present during a thunderstorm.
Dugouts, while providing shelter and protection from the rain, are not considered proper shelter to protect anyone from deadly lightning strikes. Enclosed buildings and vehicles are proper. And when seeking shelter in a vehicle remember to roll up the windows and not touch any metallic surfaces inside.
Tom Skilling, meteorologist for WGN TV here in Chicago, has written some very helpful responses on this topic in his 'Ask Tom Why?' column published in the Chicago Tribune. I'll reprint several of the pertinent ones below.
Sept. 11, 2005
Dear Tom, An empty car parked in a lot in Schaumburg was struck by lightning. What might have happened to people, had they been in the car? And can lightning strike a moving car? Ron Showers
Dear Ron, Meteorologist Ron Holle has spent a lifetime studying lightning and he tells us, “Cars and other vehicles are hit by lightning quite often. It doesn’t matter if they are moving or not because a flash lasts as briefly as one-tenth of a second. Occupants are reasonably safe inside a metal-topped vehicle that is hit by lightning so long as they do not touch the metal exterior.” Holle says it’s not rubber tires that give protection to the occupants of an automobile but the metal cage that carries electric current around the interior of the vehicle. The lightning’s current will arc from the metal exterior to the ground.
June 7, 2003
Dear Tom, We were caught in a frightening lightning storm at a picnic in Iowa, and we took shelter in our car because we believed the car's rubber tires would insulate us from the lightning. Did we do the right thing? San Warfield
Dear San, You did the right thing, but your rationale was wrong. Lightning, as you realize, can be a killer and must be treated with great respect. It is widely but erroneously believed that rubber tires on a car (or on a bicycle or even the rubber soles of shoes) can protect people from lightning strikes. The fact is that rubber-soled shoes and rubber tires on cars or bicycles offer no protection from lightning. However, the steel-and-metal frame of a hard-topped car, not its rubber tires, can protect the occupants of the vehicle if they are not touching metal in the car.
June 5, 2003
Dear Tom, Where is the safest place during a lightning if you are in a park? Denise Reed-Burbon, Chicago Park District
Dear Denise, On average, Lightning strikes about 400 people in the U.S. each year, killing 93. If you can hear thunder, lightning is present, and it can strike before, during and after thunderstorm rains. The single most dangerous place during a thunderstorm is outdoors, so the best protection is to take shelter indoors or in a hard-topped vehicle, careful not to touch metal. Water is a good conductor of electricity, so stay away from beaches and get off the water and out of small boats. Stay away from isolated or tall trees, as lightning often seeks the tallest object. It is advised to wait 15 minutes after the storm passes to resume outdoor activity.
November 24, 2000
Dear Tom, Because I was wearing rubber-soled shoes, I recently continued playing paddle tennis even after I heard an announcement that lightning threatened the area. Paddle tennis is played outdoors on a metal surface, surrounded by 15-foot-high wire fencing with higher light poles. Was it safe to play under these conditions? Pkim
Dear Pkim, The rubber-soled shoes you were wearing gave you absolutely no protection from lightning, and the fact that you were standing on and surrounded by metal further increased your risk. In the circumstances you described, your decision to keep playing paddle tennis was dangerously foolhardy.
A cloud-to-ground lightning bolt occurs when the electrical potential difference between cloud and ground becomes great enough to overcome the resistance of intervening insulating material. Because rubber is an insulator, it is widely but incorrectly believed that wearing rubber shoes or rubber boots can somehow offer protection from lightning. Air is also a good insulator, but that does not prevent the formation of electric-conducting channels and lightning sparks several miles in length.
September 25, 2001
Dear Tom, If I were to get caught by a thunderstorm while on the Des Plaines River trail, would I be safer in an open treeless field or under a canopy of trees? Terry Wisland, Vernon Hills
Dear Terry, The specific thunderstorm threat that you are referring to is lightning. And the answer to your question is that you are exposing yourself to less risk under a canopy of trees than in an open treeless field, but be aware of this: The behavior of lightning is so quirky that no outdoor place offers absolute protection from a lightning strike. The best advice: Do not be outside during a thunderstorm. If outside, the lightning safety rule is that you should never be the highest object in your vicinity, or near to it. That means an open field offers no protection, whereas a canopy of trees offers slight protection so long as you are not near taller trees in the canopy.
March 4, 1999
Dear Tom, I have a great porch on the front of my house. It is covered but not enclosed. Is it safe to sit out there when there is thunder/ lightning present? I hope so--it sure is a peaceful place to sit during a storm.
L. Barton-Chicago
Dear L. Barton, The degree of safety on such a porch depends in large measure on its construction and what is around it. High trees can act as “strike receptors” for the lightning, says New Mexico Tech lightning expert Prof. Charles Moore, providing the path of least resistance lightning seeks—and offering the porch a measure of protection. But, a porch attached to a home out in the open with no surrounding trees may attract lightning. Given his preference, Moore says he’d sit on a porch attached to a two story house protected by properly grounded lightning rods. Such a lightning protection system would likely extend over the porch.
Interestingly, metal roofs on porches can offer lightning protection if grounded. Near California’s Mt. Whitney on July 14, 1990, 13 hikers took refuge in a Park Service hut with a metal roof that had not been grounded. Lightning struck, killing one and injuring the others.
June 13, 1998
Dear Mr. Skilling, When fishing in the wilderness, during a thunderstorm, am I safer staying in the middle of the lake, on an open shore of sand or rocks, or in the woods?
Bob Karlo, Palos Park, IL
Dear Bob, Being caught outdoors in thunderstorms is dangerous. The open lake and shore are definitely out—but none of the options available, short of safe shelter, offers satisfactory lightning protection. That’s the emphatic response of lightning expert Dr. Raul Lopez, who stresses a proactive approach to lightning—make yourself aware that lightning is a possibility and know how to get to a shelter fast, even in the wilderness.
Dr. Lopez hesitantly offers this as a less than perfect alternative to a shelter. Get off the lake and shore immediately and into a small growth of trees surrounded by taller trees—staying away from individual trees, especially the tall ones. Crouch on the balls of your feet with feet close together and put your hands over your ears.
August 27, 2002
Dear Tom, When there are thunderstorms, a safe place to be is in a car. I believe this is because of the rubber tires against the ground. Is this correct? Would it then be safe to ride a bike in a thunderstorm? Charlotta Jonsson, Evanston
Dear Charlotta, An automobile—hard-topped and with its windows closed—does indeed offer protection from a lightning strike during thunderstorms. This is so not because the vehicle sits on rubber tires but because electric current from a strike passes over the surface of the vehicle’s metal sheath, over its tires and into the ground. If you consider that a lightning bolt passes through several miles of air (which, like rubber, is a poor conductor of electricity), you will realize that a thin layer of rubber offers no protection at all from a lightning strike. For this reason, bicycling during a thunderstorm is a high-risk activity.
And I recall from one of Tom Skilling's responses 10 or 15 years ago, he stated that a single lightning bolt can travel up to 15 miles laterally from the cloud to strike the ground. A storm cell can unleash a lightning bolt that considerable distance to a location where no clouds are seemingly evident, except, perhaps, way off in the distance.
This particular response from Tom Skilling was published just after a pitcher in a high school or Legion game in a northern Chicago suburb was struck and killed by a lightning bolt as he was standing on the mound under an absolutely clear, blue sky. The 'lightning protection system', now being used in some areas, would have detected the presence of lightning activity far beyond the field and would have sounded an alarm.
In this case everyone most likely would have been baffled by the warning coming while the sky was clear and blue. The system works and officials would have cleared the field before anyone was in danger. Don't doubt the system's capability. Get off the field and into proper shelter.
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