Thunderstorms present clear danger

Spring has officially arrived and thunderstorms across the Inland Northwest will be increasing. These storms should be taken seriously as more Americans are killed by lightning than hurricanes, tornadoes or floods.

The typical bolt of lightning is actually four times hotter than the surface of the sun with temperatures as high as 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s the most dangerous and frequently encountered weather hazard people experience each year.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency estimates there are 200 deaths and 750 severe injuries from lightning each year in the U.S. Of those who were killed by lightning in the last few years, 98 percent were outside.

I met someone who was struck by lightning. She was with a group of people and standing in an open area. She was fortunate to be alive from that experience, but still has some long-term health effects from the strike.

According to government agencies, “When thunder roars, go indoors!” Lightning can strike as far as 10 miles from an area where it is raining. That’s about the distance you can hear thunder. Therefore, if you can hear thunder, you are within striking distance. Under these conditions, seek safe shelter immediately.

There are private companies, as well as government agencies, that have continuous lightning detection systems. Although these systems are useful, many meterologists, including me, believe that these systems are not 100 percent accurate. In fact, the National Lightning Detection Network claims a 95 percent accuracy rate.

Sometimes there is only one lightning stroke. However, there are occasions where a lightning flash will contain multiple strokes. There was one photograph that captured 26 strokes in a lightning flash.

With the number of strokes, the intensity of a single flash can vary. This may determine how severe one’s injuries may be when struck by lightning.

Thunderstorm activity across the Inland Northwest should be above normal levels this spring season. We’ll still have occasional warm spells, but the rest of March and April should bring us a cooler and wetter than average weather pattern.

Our mean temperature is about 5 degrees below normal. Earlier this month, our average reading was more than 8 degrees below normal.

It’s still possible that we’ll see some snow before the season ends. The all-time snowfall record is 93.5 inches set back in 1949-’50. As of early Tuesday, the snowfall figure stands at 89.4 inches at Spokane International Airport, but that figure could be a little higher as snow was in the forecast.