Essential Lightning Safety Tips to Protect Yourself

Do you know what to do to stay safe when lightning strikes? The U.S. sees about 25 million lightning strikes annually and about 400 serious injuries resulting from lightning strikes each year. While it is impossible to accurately predict exactly when and where lightning will strike, you can take steps to keep yourself and your family safe during a storm with these lightning safety tips from Boston Lightning Rod Company, Inc. in Dedham, MA.

Understanding Lightning & Its Hazards

Lightning is often hotter than the surface of the sun and strikes with immense force that can cause significant damage to people, structures, and trees. While direct injuries from lightning strikes are somewhat rare, they do happen. More commonly, however, people experience injuries due to the structural and environmental damage of a lightning strike, such as power surges in buildings or fallen tree limbs. Lightning strikes may also cause fires, including forest fires that can quickly spread due to dry conditions and heavy winds during a storm.

Top Lightning Safety Tips for Indoors

You might think that if you are inside your home when a thunderstorm rolls through, you are safe from lightning. While being indoors does significantly reduce your risk of injury, it does not mean you are completely protected. Lightning can strike homes or structures near your home, causing widespread structural damage, fires, or electrocution.

If you are indoors during a thunderstorm, do not use any electronic equipment, including appliances, computers, televisions, radios, wired telephones, game systems, or anything else connected to an electrical outlet. Lightning can easily travel through electrical systems. It can also travel through plumbing systems, so avoid water during a storm as well. Stay away from windows, doors, porches, and concrete as well. Do not lie on concrete floors or lean against concrete walls. After a storm passes, you should remain indoors for at least 30 minutes after the last sounds of thunder.

Outdoor Lightning Strike Safety Tips

If you are outdoors when a thunderstorm arrives in the area, seek shelter immediately. Do not wait until a storm is directly overhead. Lightning can strike up several miles away from a storm’s core. If you are on elevated ground, head for lower-elevation areas away from hills, cliffs, and mountain ridges. Steer clear of isolated trees, open fields, and bodies of water. If possible, seek out a sturdy building or a vehicle with the windows rolled up and the doors closed. Structures like picnic shelters and open patios will not provide sufficient shelter.

One of the most prevalent myths when it comes to lightning safety is that you should lie down on the ground to avoid being struck by lightning. This is actually among the worst things you can do. Instead, walk or run towards the nearest available shelter and wait for the storm to pass from there.

How Whole House Lightning Protection Adds Safety

During a lightning storm, you will be safest if you are inside your own home. That’s even more true if you have invested in a whole home lightning protection system. These systems are designed to intercept direct lightning strikes and side flashes to divert the electrical current away from your home and safely to the ground. Systems are multi-tiered with various components to mitigate a wide range of risks associated with lightning strikes. Any home can have a lightning protection system installed, as no home is completely safe from lightning.

Despite common misconceptions, installing a lightning rod as part of a whole house lightning protection system will not attract or cause lightning strikes. It will simply intercept any incoming strikes to prevent damage to the home by providing a safe pathway for lightning to reach the ground.

Protect Your Home From Lightning in Dedham, MA

If you want to ensure that your home is protected and gain greater peace of mind that your family is safe even during the most severe weather conditions in Dedham, MA, contact Boston Lightning Rod Company, Inc. We are happy to provide a quote for a customized lightning protection system that does not detract from the aesthetics and curb appeal of your home.