Method 1 of 1: Calculating the Distance from Lightning
Watch the sky for a flash of lightning. Count the number of seconds until you hear thunder. If you have a digital or analog watch, begin timing as soon as you see the lightning and stop as Calculate the distance from lightning in miles or kilometers. Sound travels one mile every five seconds and one kilometer every three seconds. Calculate the distance from lightning in feet or meters. Sound travels at a speed of about 344 meters, or 1,129 feet, per second.
The air in a lightning strike is heated to 50,000 degrees F. A ground stroke can produce somewhere between 100 million to a 1 billion volts of electricity. The average peak current in a cloud-to-ground lightning stroke is 100,000 amperes. The estimated diameter of a lightning channel is about 1 inch. , and more items.
How can you tell how close lightning strikes?
Signs of an Immediate Strike. Hair standing on end. Tingling skinA metallic taste in your mouth. The smell of chlorine (this is ozone, which is produced when nitrogen oxides from lightning interact with other chemicals and sunlight)Sweaty palmsA vibrating, buzzing, or crackling sound coming from metal objects around you.
How can I Stay a safe distance from lightning?
Immediately get off elevated areas such as hills, mountain ridges, or peaks. Never lie flat on the ground. Never shelter under an isolated tree. Never use a cliff or rocky overhang for shelter. Immediately get out of and away from ponds, lakes, and other bodies of water. , and more items.
How do you detect lightning strikes?
Unfortunately, common interferences are often popular items that people use every day: Powerlines, car engines, cell phones, computers, microwaves, and radios.
The electric field “looks” for a doorknob., and sort of. It looks for the closest and easiest path to release its charge. Often lightning occurs between clouds or inside a cloud. But the lightning we usually care about most is the lightning that goes from clouds to ground —because that’s us!
How lightning strikes?
A person struck directly by lightning becomes a part of the main lightning discharge channel. Most often, direct strikes occur to victims who are in open areas. A side flash (also called a side splash) occurs when lightning strikes a taller object near the victim and a portion of the current jumps from taller object Ground Current. When lightning strikes a tree or other object, much of the energy travels outward from the strike in and along the ground surface. Lightning can travel long distances in wires or other metal surfaces. Metal does not attract lightning, but it provides a path for the lightning to follow. While not as common as the other types of lightning injuries, people caught in “streamers” are at risk of being killed or injured by lightning.
What happens when you get struck by lightning?
Lightning strikes can inflict both cardiovascular and neurological damage on the human body. If you’re struck by lightning, your lightning strike side effects could be as minor as cataracts or as serious as death. There are a plethora of lightning strike side effects.