No Safety Guarantee

Being inside a home or vehicle is no absolute guarantee of safety. Using electrical equipment or a corded phone can make a lightning target, and being in contact with anything metal – plumbing, a metal window frame or door – can make you a conductor of electricity.

If you plan to be outdoors for any length of time, it’s best to check the weather report to see if any thunderstorms are forecast. If you can’t postpone activities or trips, then make sure there is adequate shelter easily reachable when problems arise. That means an enclosed shelter in a home, office, store or hard-top vehicle with windows.

If you are trapped outdoors in an area where reaching shelter is impossible – say, a golf course or a beach area far from shelter – make yourself less of a target. Crouch into a ball position, tucking your feet and knees together and putting your head down with hands covering your ears. It is important not to lie on the ground, as lighting strikes can send electric currents along the ground that can reach deadly levels as far as 100 feet away. By crouching, you reduce your target and are minimally in contact with the ground.

People in a group should stay separated from each other. This will reduce the number of injuries if lightning strikes.

Bad Shelter Choices

If you are trapped outdoors in a thunderstorm, an open vehicle like a golf cart, motorcycle or convertible is not good shelter. Porches, sheds, tents, baseball dugouts, gazebos and sports arenas are not good shelter choices and do not protect from lightning strikes. Certainly, being on a golf course, beach, in a park, playground, near a lake, swimming pool or other outdoor area, means shelter should be sought immediately.