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05
Sept
Pannal woman unscathed after lightning strike
A woman in Pannal escaped death and injury yesterday when the keys she was holding were struck by lightning.
Anne Smith was at home when the weather broke, following a Met Office warning for thunderstorms.
She told the Stray Ferret:
I was just about to open the garage door when it struck with absolutely no warning. A terrible noise and it knocked the garage keys out of my hand.
Thank goodness I was standing to the side of the door, not full on, or I would have been struck.
Mrs Smith, who said she was “very shaken” by the incident, went straight inside and made herself a coffee to get over the shock.
She added:
The noise was tremendous and very, very scary. I was not hurt at all, just frightened.
If I had been holding the keys more tightly when the lightning struck them, it would probably have gone up my arm and I would not be here to tell you about it.
She said the keys were also unscathed.
Yesterday, we reported that North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue had investigated a report of a lightning strike on a wind turbine in Pannal.
How to avoid being struck
There are three types of lightning strike: a direct strike, a ground strike, and a side flash, which is when lightning strikes something else and jumps sideways to hit a person. Direct strikes are most dangerous but are rare, while ground strikes cause the most fatalities. Side flashes are the least dangerous.
According to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, between 30 and 60 people are struck by lightning each year in the UK, and on average, three (5-10%) of these strikes are fatal.
Although there is no way of protecting yourself completely from lightning, measures can be taken to reduce the risk of getting struck.
One of these is the 30/30 rule. To measure how far away a storm is, count the seconds between seeing lightning and hearing the thunder. Divide the number of seconds by five to calculate the distance in miles, or by three for kilometres.
The 30/30 rule says that if the time lag between lightning and thunder is 30 seconds in length or less, you should seek shelter. It then advises that people should stay inside this shelter for 30 minutes after the last clap of thunder to avoid the most dangerous phases of the storm on either side of its peak.
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