Recent thunderstorms in Wichita area offer reminder of lightning’s power

Remember when your mother told you to get off the phone and stay out of the shower during a thunderstorm? You probably rolled your eyes or scowled.

But it turns out mom was right.

“Lightning is going to follow anything that’s a conductor,” Wichita Fire Marshal Brad Crisp said. “It’s going to take the path of least resistance.”

That could include copper wire, used in telephone lines and water pipes. It could include water — “water is very conductive,” Crisp said — and metal, too, which is why officials urge residents not to touch anything metal during a thunderstorm.

Wichita received a fresh reminder of lightning’s power and intensity last week when a storm dumped several inches of rain in a short period and pounded the region with intense lightning. A lightning strike ignited a fire that gutted a house in The Foliage housing development near 13th and Webb, causing an estimated $1 million in damage.

The lightning struck with such ferocity that people who lived near that house felt the ground shake, Crisp said. Other lightning strikes caused power outages that affected thousands of people.

Another lightning bolt blasted a hole in the north turret of Friends University’s historic clock tower, though the damage was “pretty minor,” said Ryan Archer, director of business operations for the university. “It could have been much worse.”

A lightning strike is the suspected cause of another fire that heavily damaged an apartment building in Overland Park last week.

In the past 18 months, Crisp said, Wichita firefighters have been alerted to 21 lightning strikes. Fourteen resulted in damage.

That’s not a lot, he said, but people need to take the threat of lightning seriously.

“Most people don’t realize how much energy that lightning puts out,” Crisp said.

Estimates vary on how much energy a lightning bolt contains. Windpowerenergy.com projected that if all the energy from a single bolt of lightning could be captured and converted to electricity, it would light 56 houses for one day.

As tempting as it might be to try to harness lightning’s raw energy and convert it into electrical power, weather officials say, the challenges in predicting when and where lightning will strike — as well as how to capture it — are prohibitive.

“It’s a very hot source,” said Paul Walker, a senior meteorologist with AccuWeather Enterprise Solutions. Even if you could capture the lightning strike with a metal capacitor, he said, “you could possibly just melt it.”

Crisp said information he’s gathered estimates that one lightning bolt contains enough energy to light 165,000 100-watt light bulbs.

A lightning bolt produces up to 100,000 amps in a millisecond, he said. Contrast that with the 30-amp breakers most houses have to handle large appliances, and it shows why electrical systems are no match for a jolt from a lightning strike.

Neither are electronics. The surge protectors people buy are designed to handle small bumps in power supply from utility companies, Crisp said.

“They’re not designed for a hit of 100,000 amps,” he said.

“We’ve seen electrical lines and outlets blown out of walls because of the amount of pressure behind it,” Crisp said.

House fires have ignited after nails were blasted out of walls by lightning and landed in bedding, he said.

Basic lightning safety rules

A troubling trend is adding urgency to the lightning safety messages being delivered by fire officials. As of July 8, there had been 17 deaths from lightning strikes in the U.S. this year — double the average total for the past five years.

There are several possible reasons for this, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: more stirring in the atmosphere across the country; more people taking vacations in an improved economy and the possibility of people taking more risks than normal.

People may be forgetting basic lightning safety rules, Crisp said.

While using a cellphone during a thunderstorm is safe, using a landline is risky, he said. Touching metal, even inside a house or building, can be risky as well. A teenager in Texas was hospitalized earlier this year when lightning struck her house as she was opening a refrigerator door.

To be safe, Crisp said, people should avoid water, metal, doors and windows even when they’re inside during a thunderstorm. Unplugging electronics will protect those devices from damage from a lightning bolt’s energy surge through electrical lines.

Crisp recommended residents consider consider buying a lightning rod system to protect their homes and other structures.

“No one tool does everything, and it can’t do everything,” he said. “But it does have the potential to at least help.”

Lightning rod systems are designed to carry a lightning bolt’s charge away from the structure and into the ground. Common in rural areas, they’re not often seen in urban settings.

Another step residents can take to reduce the risk of their homes being struck by lightning is to make sure there are no trees close to the house. The height of the trees may attract lightning, Crisp said, and because bolts routinely have numerous tendrils close to the surface, one or more may strike the nearby house.

Kansas recorded 66 fatalities from lightning between 1959 and 2013, according to NOAA records. That is tied for 24th in the country with Virginia. The last person killed by lightning in Kansas was a 66-year-old man in Coffey County in 2012.

This story was originally published July 12, 2015 at 2:54 PM with the headline "Recent thunderstorms in Wichita area offer reminder of lightning’s power."