Lightning 4
Lightning 4 : It's a warm afternoon and the football team is on the field practicing. Some parents and a few other spectators sit in the bleachers watching the play. The sky to the west is darkening and a warm breeze has picked up. The rumble of thunder can be heard in the distance. Keeping a watchful eye to the sky, the coach figures he can get through most of the practice before the rain comes. There is a big game on Saturday and only one practice left. He can't afford to let up now. The practice continues, the thunder gets louder and the sky a bit darker. A cool, gusty wind now blows in from the west, but still no rain. A parent walks over to the coach and asks about the chance of practice being called early. The coach smiles and says, "I've been watching that storm and it appears to be passing north of us now." The sky begins to lighten to the west and a couple sun rays beam down from beneath the towering clouds. Suddenly, a white streak hits the uprights in the end zone with a deafening roar. Players, near that end of the field, tumble to the ground. There is confusion. What happened? Where did the lightning come from? The storm was at least 5 miles away and none of the previous strokes were anywhere near the school. It seemed to just come out of the blue! In 1988, eleven players on the Silver City, NM football team where taken to the hospital after lightning struck their practice field. Fortunately none where killed, but four were seriously injured. Every year lightning hits ball fields during little league and soccer games. Many games are not called until the rain begins, and yet it is not the rain that is dangerous. Ball fields provide a lot of potential lightning targets such as poles, metal fences, and metal bleachers. The fields themselves are wide open areas where players are often the tallest objects around. Maryland, District of Columbia, and Virginia average between 30 and 40 thunderstorm days each year. Lightning is the most common thunderstorm threat. Nationally, lightning kills an average of 85 and injures 250 people each year. This number may not seem high, yet when you look at the individual cases, most could have been prevented. The basic rule of thumb is "If you can hear thunder, you are close enough to the storm to be struck!" Thunderstorms extend 5 to 10 miles into the atmosphere. Winds aloft can blow the upper portion (anvil) of the storm many miles downstream. Lightning can come out of the side or anvil of the storm striking the ground 10 to 15 miles away from the rain portion of the cloud
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