Summer is the season for lightning. Statistics show that June, July and August-the time when you’re most likely to be swinging a lightning rod of a 5-iron or hiking near an electricity friendly tree are the months with the most lightning strike incidents. And lest you think Mother Nature doesn’t have a biased bone in her ethereal body, rake note: 84 percent of lightning strike victims have prostates. If you find yourself or near a lightning storm, follow these precautions recommended by the National Lightning Safety Institute (www.lightningsafety.com):
- Take immediate shelter when lightning is within six to eight miles. Calculate this distance by counting the seconds between the lightning flash and the subsequent thunderclap. For each five-second interval, lightning is one mile away.
- Safe havens include fully enclosed metal vehicles with rolled up windows, substantial buildings, low ground (such as ditches and trenches) and clumps of bushes.
- Avoid solitary trees, water, high ground, open fields or spaces, canopies, and small picnic or rain shelters, as well as all out door metal objects such as flag poles, fences and gates, light poles, power tools, metal bleachers, golf carts and machinery.
- Keep 15 to 20 feet between yourself and others.
- When caught in a lightning storm without shelter, remove metal objects trom your body and lose that baseball cap. Crouch down like a catcher and place your elbows on your knees and your hands over your ears.
- A victim doesn’t carry an electrical charge and can be touched safely. Give first aid it you’re qualified.