As somebody who has not been struck, but been damn close to a strike twice, I'd like to note that the folk wisdom that your hair stands up (like when you get goosebumps, I guess? Not like an Einstein picture?) before a strike and gives you some kind of warning is utterly false. What you're supposed to do when so warned is is unclear, but nevermind that.
How close is damn close?
This summer I was doing some work on a house when a storm rolled in. Went inside and waited out some heavy wind, lightning and rain. 10 minutes after the rain let up, the guy I was looking at and I looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders and figured we'd get back to work. I went out to the patio and was pulling the tarp off the tablesaw when lightning struck. I reflexively count after a strike (I spend a lot of time in the woods), and the interval between the lightning and the thunder was long enough to register a lightning strike, but not to begin counting.
Needless to say, we went back inside, packed up our stuff there, and started loading the truck. As we were doing so, a fire truck came by inquiring where we might find a nearby address. Knowing that address and the address of the house we were working on let me determine that we were about 80m away from the strike using Google maps.
That's the second closest I've been. The closest was on the Appalachian Trail in 2010. I ducked into a shelter in the Shenandoahs to wait out a storm. The rain tapered off and stopped, and I figured I'd shove on for a few more miles before calling it a day (around 3:00 PM). As I was about to leave the shelter, lightning struck close enough that the lightning and thunder registered in my brain essentially simultaneously. Best estimate based on this summer's experience? 30m, maybe less?
In neither case did my hair stand up. If you need to be closer to the location of the impending strike to observe the phenomenon, I reckon you're pretty well boned.
If you're looking to not get struck by lightning in the first place, which seems advisable based on TFA, I'd suggest that the notion you're going to have some kind of warning before a strike is nonsense.
I would similarly note that just because it seems like the storm has passed doesn't mean it has. In high school marching band, the rule was that a football game couldn't resume until an hour after the last lightning. It seemed ridiculous at the time. Now it seems well-founded.
How close is damn close?
This summer I was doing some work on a house when a storm rolled in. Went inside and waited out some heavy wind, lightning and rain. 10 minutes after the rain let up, the guy I was looking at and I looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders and figured we'd get back to work. I went out to the patio and was pulling the tarp off the tablesaw when lightning struck. I reflexively count after a strike (I spend a lot of time in the woods), and the interval between the lightning and the thunder was long enough to register a lightning strike, but not to begin counting.
Needless to say, we went back inside, packed up our stuff there, and started loading the truck. As we were doing so, a fire truck came by inquiring where we might find a nearby address. Knowing that address and the address of the house we were working on let me determine that we were about 80m away from the strike using Google maps.
That's the second closest I've been. The closest was on the Appalachian Trail in 2010. I ducked into a shelter in the Shenandoahs to wait out a storm. The rain tapered off and stopped, and I figured I'd shove on for a few more miles before calling it a day (around 3:00 PM). As I was about to leave the shelter, lightning struck close enough that the lightning and thunder registered in my brain essentially simultaneously. Best estimate based on this summer's experience? 30m, maybe less?
In neither case did my hair stand up. If you need to be closer to the location of the impending strike to observe the phenomenon, I reckon you're pretty well boned.
If you're looking to not get struck by lightning in the first place, which seems advisable based on TFA, I'd suggest that the notion you're going to have some kind of warning before a strike is nonsense.
I would similarly note that just because it seems like the storm has passed doesn't mean it has. In high school marching band, the rule was that a football game couldn't resume until an hour after the last lightning. It seemed ridiculous at the time. Now it seems well-founded.