24
- THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SAFETY
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 2004
Lightning dangers:Weathering the storm
By Amanda O'Toole
aotoole@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Donna Tucker, associate professor of geography, advises students to think twice before grabbing an umbrella on their way to class during a thunderstorm.
The National Weather Service in Topeka reported that half of the people hit by lightning in the past two years were students walking on college campuses; two happened at Fort Hays State University in 2003 and another at the University of Kansas near Potter's Lake in 2002.
Lightning Safety Awareness week runs through Saturday and the National Weather Service, as well as Tucker, thinks people should take lightning more seriously.
Most lightning strikes occur in vulnerable situations, Tucker said. Just being on campus increases a person's chance of being struck because of the high elevation campus was built on.
A person should pay attention to how much ground-to-cloud lightning there is before going outside, Tucker said. The more ground-to-cloud lightning there is the more dangerous it would be to venture outside.
"It's better to stay inside and try to wait out the storm," Tucker said.
Mike Akulow, Warning Coordination Meteorologist for the National Weather Service, said making the decision to walk in a storm to get to class is tough.
"The odds are probably with you," Akulow said of walking on campus during a storm. "But those odds can catch up with you and the consequences can be bad."
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, lightning can severely damage a person's nervous system and lead to cardiac arrest. Survivors have suffered from memory difficulty and personality changes as well.
A bolt of lightning is usually 50,000 degrees and carries about 100 million volts of electricity. Lightning bolts are created by the separation of electrical charges in a cloud. This separation, Tucker said, is caused by ice.
There are two types of lightning: Negative lightning is more common and occurs when the bolt connects from the ground to the bottom of a cloud where negative electrons have settled; Positive lightning is less common and tends to cause fatalities, Tucker said.
This happens when the boit travels from the ground to the top of the cloud where positive electrons have settled.
Tucker said there really wasn't a way for a person to tell the difference between the
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT LIGHTNING STORMS
The NOAA reported that lightning could travel through phone lines and strike a person talking on a land-line phone or even through water pipes and strike a person taking a shower.
Stay away from tall trees
Stay out of the water
Stay away from windows
Only shelters that are grounded are safe. Before seeking refuge from a storm under a shelter, make sure electrical or telephone wires are grounded.
Source:
www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov
two types without proper equipment.
Clouds growing higher in the sky carry a larger risk of producing lightning, she said. If a person is spending time outside, she said, they need to be aware of what the clouds are doing.
Students can prevent getting struck by lightning to some degree by applying common sense and by staying away from trees and wide open areas.
If a student has to go outside to make it to class, Tucker said, they should walk
Courtney Kuhlen/Kansan
Lightning paints the sky to the west of Lawrence. Lightning Safety Awareness week runs through Saturday, and experts advise people to be aware of weather conditions to prevent possible injury.
through buildings as much as possible and avoid open spaces, like by Potter's Lake.
— Edited by Erik Johnson
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