Lightning Safety (2024)

Education and prevention are the keys to lightning safety. This article will provide several prevention strategies and educational resources to help member institutions prepare to respond to a lightning hazard. Prevention should begin long before any athletically-related activity, event or practice by having an institutional lightning safety plan in place. The following steps are recommended by the NCAA and NOAA to mitigate risk of a lightning hazard:

1. Develop a lightning safety plan for each outdoor venue.

2. Designate a person to monitor threatening weather and to notify the chain of command who can make the decision to remove a team, game personnel, television crews and spectators from an athletics site or event. A lightning safety plan should include prearranged instructions and announcements for participants and spectators, designation of warning and all-clear signals, proper signage and designation of safer places from the lightning hazard.

3. Monitor local weather reports daily. Be diligently aware of potential thunderstorms that may form during scheduled athletics events or practices and monitor warning signs of developing thunderstorms in the area, such as high winds or darkening skies. Weather information can be found through various means,: local television news coverage, online, cable and satellite weather programming, a lightning detection and notification app or the National Weather Service (NWS) website at www.weather.gov.

4. Be informed of National Weather Service (NWS) issued thunderstorm watches or warnings and know the difference between a severe thunderstorm watch and a severe thunderstorm warning. A watch indicates that severe thunderstorms are possible in and near the watch area. Stay informed and be ready to act if a severe thunderstorm warning is issued. A warning is issued when severe weather has been reported by spotters or indicated by radar. Warnings indicate imminent danger to life and property. It should be noted that neither watches nor warnings are issued for lightning. A NOAA weather radio is particularly helpful in providing this information.

5. Know where the closest “safer structure or location” is to every outdoor venue and know how long it will take to evacuate everyone to that safer location. A safer structure or location is defined as:

a. Any building normally occupied or frequently used by people, e.g., a building with plumbing and/or electrical wiring that acts to electrically ground the structure. Avoid the shower, plumbing facilities, contact with electrical appliances and open windows and doorways during a thunderstorm.

b. In the absence of a sturdy, frequently inhabited building, any vehicle with a hard metal roof (neither a convertible, nor a golf cart) with the windows shut provides a measure of safety. The hard metal frame and roof, not the rubber tires, are what protects occupants by dissipating lightning current around the vehicle and not through the occupants. It is important not to touch the metal framework of the vehicle. Some athletics events rent school buses to provide safer locations around open courses or fields.

6. Lightning awareness should be heightened at the first flash of lightning, clap of thunder, and/or other signs of an impending storm, such as increasing winds or darkening skies, no matter how far away. These types of activities should be treated as a warning or wake-up call to athletics personnel. Lightning safety experts suggest that if you hear thunder, begin preparation for evacuation. If you see lightning, consider suspending activities and evacuating to designated safer locations. For large-scale events, continuous monitoring of the weather should occur from the time pre-event activities occur and throughout the event.

Specific lightning safety guidelines have been developed with the assistance of lightning safety experts. Institutions should design a lightning safety plan that considers local safety needs, local venues (including access to those venues), weather patterns and storm types.

• As a minimum, lightning safety experts strongly recommend that by the time the weather monitor observes 30 seconds between seeing the lightning flash and hearing its associated thunder or by the time the leading edge of the storm is within six miles of the venue, all individuals should have left the athletics site and be within a safer structure or location. Individuals just entering the outdoor venue should be directed to the safer location. Use the Flash to Bang method to estimate the distance between your location and the lighting flash (See Table 1).
• Thunder may be hard to hear if there is an athletics event going on, particularly in stadiums with large crowds. Implement your lightning safety plan accordingly.
• Ensure a safe and orderly evacuation from the venue with announcements, signage, safety information in programs and entrances that can also serve as mass exits. Planning should account for the time it takes to move the teams and spectators to their designated safer locations.
• Lightning can strike from blue sky and in the absence of rain. At least ten percent of lightning occurs when there is no rainfall and when blue sky is visible; this is especially prevalent with summer thunderstorms. Lightning can, and does, strike as far as ten (or more) miles away from the rain shaft. If you hear thunder, lightning is close enough to pose an immediate threat. Be aware of local weather patterns and review local weather forecasts before an outdoor practice or event.
• Avoid using landline telephones, except in emergency situations. People have been killed while using a landline telephone during a thunderstorm. Cellular or cordless phones are safe alternatives to a landline phone, particularly if the person and the antenna are located within a safer structure or location, and if all other precautions are followed.
• To resume athletics activities, lightning safety experts recommend waiting 30 minutes after both the last sound of thunder and after the last flash of lightning is at least six miles away, and moving away from the venue. If lightning is seen without hearing thunder, lightning may be out of range and therefore less likely to be a significant threat. At night, be aware that lightning can be visible at a much greater distance than during the day as clouds are being lit from the inside by lightning. This greater distance may mean that the lightning is no longer a significant threat. At night, use both the sound of thunder and seeing the lightning channel itself to decide on when to reset the 30-minute return-to-play clock before resuming outdoor athletics activities.
• People who have been struck by lightning do not carry an electrical charge. Therefore, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is safe for the first responder. If possible, an injured person should be moved to a safer location before starting CPR. Lightning strike victims who show signs of cardiac or respiratory arrest need prompt emergency care. Call 911 and activate your emergency action plan immediately. Prompt, aggressive CPR has been highly effective for the survival of victims of lightning strikes.
• Automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) are a safe and effective means of reviving people in cardiac arrest. Planned access to early defibrillation should be part of your institution’s emergency action plan. However, do not delay CPR while searching for an AED.

Table 1. Flash to Bang Method

To estimate the distance between your location and a lightning flash, use the "Flash to Bang" method: If you observe lightning, count the number of seconds until you hear thunder. Divide the number of seconds by five to obtain the distance in miles. Example: If you see lightning and it takes 10 seconds before you hear the thunder, then the lightning is 2 miles away.

References

1. Cooper MA, Andrews CJ, Holle RL, Lopez RE. Lightning Injuries. In: Auerbach, ed. Management of Wilderness and Environmental Emergencies. 5th ed. C.V. Mosby, 2007:67-108.

2. Bennett BL. A Model Lightning Safety Policy for Athletics. Journal of Athletic Training. 32(3):251-253. 1997.

3. Price TG, Cooper MA: Electrical and Lightning Injuries. In: Marx et al. Rosen’s Emergency Medicine, Concepts and Clinical Practice, Mosby,6th ed. 2006; 22: 67-78.

4. National Lightning Safety Institute website: www.lightningsafety.com.

5. Uman MA. All About Lightning. New York: Dover Publications. 1986.

6. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration lightning safety website: www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov.

7. Walsh KM, Hanley MJ, Graner SJ, Beam D, Bazluki J. A Survey of Lightning Safety Policy in Selected Division I Colleges. Journal of Athletic Training. 32(3):206-210. 1997.

9. Holle RL. 2005: Lightning-caused recreation deaths and injuries. Preprints, 14th Symposium on Education, January 9-13, San Diego, California, American Meteorological Society, 6 pp.

10. Walsh KM, Cooper MA, Holle R, Rakov V, Roeder WP, Ryan M. National Athletic Trainers’ Association Position Statement. Lightning Safety for Athletics and Recreation. Journal of Athletic Training. 48(2);258-270. 2013.

11. National Collegiate Athletic Association. Guideline 1 E – Lightning Safety. 2013-14 NCAA Sports Medicine Handbook. 2013.

Author’s note: This article was adapted from the 2013-14 NCAA Sports Medicine Handbook Guideline 1E: Lighting Safety.