More thunderstorms than normal expected this season
April has arrived, and we’ve already had one thunderstorm in the Coeur d’Alene area, which occurred on March 20. Although we do get our share of thunder, lightning, hail and even a rare tornado, the severity of these storms does not compare to the ones seen east of the Rockies, especially in the Great Plains and Midwest’s “Tornado Alley.”
Here in North Idaho, the average number of days with thunderstorms, which include thunder, lightning and rain, across the lower elevations is 14 (one in April, two in May, five in June, two in July, two in August, one in September and October). When you include days with thunder with little or no rain, the average number of days goes up to 25. The normal number of extreme severe weather days in the Inland Northwest for an entire year is slightly less than one.
Cliff and I believe that we’ll have another year with higher than average thunderstorms, probably around 16 to 18 days. Thanks at least in part to the weak, cooler than average sea-surface temperature event, La Nina, the flow from the Pacific Ocean should continue to bring more storms into May. Then, conditions should start turning drier than normal.
Our average of 14 thunderstorms each year doesn’t compare to other parts of the country, and the world. In the Midwest, and central and parts of the southern Great Plains, there are about 50-60 thunderstorms each year. The Gulf Coast has 70-80 storms with 30-40 thunderstorms across the northern Great Plains and southern Texas. The Far West and Northeast average from as few as 5 thunderstorms along the coastal areas of the West Coast to 20-30 thunderstorms in the interior locations and Northeast.
Across the globe, there are more than 40,000 thunderstorms forming every day. That’s nearly 1,700 per hour. For an entire year, our planet receives approximately 14.6 million thunderstorms.
With thunderstorms comes lightning, which is still one of the most mysterious meteorological phenomenon. In late August of 2016, it was a sad situation as more than 300 wild reindeer were killed by lightning. No one was certain on whether it was single or a multiple-strike event.
A single bolt of lightning can be as high as 40,000 to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s hotter than the surface of the sun. As I mentioned earlier, lightning is very mysterious. I found on a website that in August of 2010, a teenager in England was struck by lightning on Friday the 13th at exactly 1:13 p.m., or 13:13 military time. Amazingly, he had only minor burns.
Another incredible story happened to a teenage girl as a 300,000-volt surge from a lightning strike was diverted through a wire of her iPod while taking shelter under a tree during a storm. She came through the lightning strike, but did have some burns from the incident. The iPod was given to her by her grandmother just 4 days earlier.
This is also the season when the airlines are more subject to lightning strikes in the Northern Hemisphere. The Federal Aviation Administration estimates that lightning hits each airliner in the United States about once a year. However, the planes are built to handle these events. When lightning does hit, the current is often sent through the plane’s skin and frame or even to the nose or the tail.
I remember asking a flight attendant when I was a kid (yes, a long time ago) if they ever had an unusual experience from a thunderstorm in the air. One told me that when the aircraft was hit with a bolt of lightning, it generated a blue ball that literally went down the passenger aisle.
Also, if the storm is not directly over you, it doesn’t mean that lightning isn’t a threat. There was another story of an 11-year girl in Pennsylvania who was struck from a storm that was several miles away. The sun was shining on that afternoon. Luckily, she only had a broken arm from the incident.
It’s not a good idea to venture out during a thunderstorm. The odds of being struck by lightning is any one year is 1 in 700,000. However, the odds of being struck in your lifetime go up to 1 in 3,000. If one happens to be outdoors during severe weather, and the hair starts standing straight up, that means conditions are setting up fast to be hit by lightning. The best thing to do is to hit the ground and even roll to break the bond between the positive and negative charge.
So, when a thunderstorm is looming, it’s a good idea to use a little extra caution.
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Contact Randy Mann at randy@longrangeweather.com