I took away the following conclusions:
1. The main lesson appears to be to avoid being in the highest place or near the highest place/thing
2. Know 30/30 rule (take action if 30 seconds between flash and sound indicating within 10 miles and wait 30 minutes after storm passes) even if blue sky ( "bolt out of the blue" ) as clouds may be hidden by the terrain.
3. Try to find lowest local place, possibly a ditch or depression, and insulate between ground and body
4. Shelter by tree may be reasonble but should not be near the highest tree in the area and you should not be right next to the tree
5. Cell phone use is an uncertain risk factor
6. Avoid old sheds especially those with metal roofs without appropiate lightning grounding.
7. Movement during storm appears ill advised.
http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/overview.htm
(from NOAA website)
Some useful information noted below:
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/433084-overview
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2553245
http://books.google.com/books?id=-BeZVUh0LQ0C see page 152
http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/primer/lightning/ltg_damage.html
NOAA safety posters say lightning can strike 10 miles away from a thunderstorm. Is this true?
Yes, it is true. Lightning that strikes away from a thunderstorm are often called "bolts from the blue." Lightning has its own agenda. It is random and unpredictable, and defies our attempts to fit it into a convenient box to describe its behavior. We don't really know why it sometimes connects with the ground and not a tree, or a beach instead of the water. Check out these photos:
www.srh.weather.gov/ffc/html/swaw05_lightning.shtml,
www.crh.noaa.gov/gid/Web_Stories/2004/other/lightningsafety/intro/introduction.php,
www.srh.noaa.gov/mlbl/BBX.html
shows a radar section with lightning data overlayed (white dots). See the white dots extending out from the core of the storm to the right – about 17km away from the back of the storm?
A helmeted bicyclist experienced a lightning strike to the head under fair weather conditions with a cloudless sky. It was determined that the bolt probably originated in a thunderstorm that was about 16km away and obscured by mountains.
Lightning strikes the ground approximately 25 million times each year in the U.S. According to the NWS, the chance of an individual in the U.S. being killed or injured during a given year is one in 240,000. Assuming an average life span of 80 years, a person's odds over their lifetime becomes one in 3000. Assuming the average person has ten family members and others with whom they are close, then the chances are one in 300 that a lightning strike will closely affect a person during their lifetime.
http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/primer/lightning/ltg_faq.shtml
http://books.google.com/books?id=TuMa5lAa3RAC
page 648
Lightning: Physics and Effects
By Vladimir A. Rakov, Martin A. Uman
Edition: illustrated
Published by Cambridge University Press, 2007
ISBN 0521035414, 9780521035415
Check out recommendations page 648,
http://books.google.com/books?id=TuMa5lAa3RAC&pg=PA648&lpg=PA648&dq=holsein+%22island+park%22+idaho+lightning&source=bl&ots=quYy8E4bfC&sig=l8ztPdKRadSVGpy1HjFZNdP0T8I&hl=en&ei=4msZSoHjPIiSswPJ0r3dCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1
The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/24/2009 10:37AM by Frank Furter.
