Tragedy literally struck July 3 on Fort Myers Beach as a man was killed and others were injured.
Lightning is powerful, potentially dead, and, in Florida, very common during the stormy summer and fall months.
Experts say tens of millions of lightning bolts (cloud-to-cloud and ground strikes) every year across Florida.
But what exactly is this explosive force of Nature?
“It’s electricity that flows from the friction that happens in the clouds,” said Keily Delerme, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Ruskin, the office that serves the Fort Myers Beach area. “You get updrafts and there’s moisture higher in the cloud. It’s colder and as they’re clashing and they become ice, those separate and you have positive charges at the top of the clouds and then negative charges at the bottom.”
That’s right. As if giant bolts of electricity streaking across the skies and pounding the earth weren’t odd enough, but lightning strikes start when ice shards thousands of feet above land grind against each other.
“In the storm, the water gets colder and colder and it freezes because the storms are thousands of feet above,” Delerme said. “The ice friction creates the electricity in the cloud and then you have flashes within the cloud and then the lightning that gets attracted to the ground.”
So, where else is lightning common?
Venezuela holds the title of lightning capital of the world thanks to a volume of 300 thunderstorm days per year.
Places like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Southeast Asia see more lightning volume than Florida.
But for the United States, Florida is one of the states where lightning is most common, occurring about 100 days in an average year.
One of the most frightening aspects of lightning is that it’s unpredictable.
Strikes can travel miles from the clouds where they formed, and that can be common on the leading edge of a storm as most of the power is aloft.
The “anvil” of the cloud is where the largest amount of power is located, Delerme said.
“It’s so unpredictable,” Delerme said. “But even the ground has a charge. A lot of times some type of element attracts electricity and then it’s usually something higher, it could be trees or in open areas it could be the ground. But you cannot predict where a positive strike will be cloud-to-ground lightning.”
Lightning can strike miles from where the storm is. The lightning in the in the anvil, the strongest part of the storm. And people don’t see it raining but it doesn’t have to be raining.
How to stay safe when lightning threatens
Lightning is common here during the summer months, especially during afternoon thunderstorms.
So, how do you keep yourself and your family safe while still enjoying the summer months?
Caution is the solution.
“If you can hear the thunder, you are close enough to get struck by lightning,” Delerme said. “Say you’re at the beach, the best way to be safe is to find shelter if there are thunderstorms developing. So being safe would be inside your car or a closed building.”
Standard safety guidance says wait at least 30 minutes after you last year thunder before resuming outdoor activities.
With so many lightning strikes flashing and smashing Southwest Florida, it might seem as though it’s relatively safe to be outside during a thunderstorm.
The odds of actually being hit during a storm are astronomical. But, with lightning, a wonderful day at the beach can turn into a tragedy in a flash.
“I’ve seen thousands of flashes in one day,” Delerme said. “I feel like a lot of people, because they’re either not from here, or they’re just not used to these weather conditions.”
Chad Gillis is an environment reporter and can be reached by email at cgillis@news-press.com.
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This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Lightning one of the most powerful forces on earth, common in Florida
Reporting by Chad Gillis, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News / Fort Myers News-Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Chad Gillis, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News | USA TODAY Network
