Finding a safe place to shelter from rain is very important
If you encounter thunderstorm weather outdoors, we should quickly find a building with lightning rods or metal doors and windows to take shelter, or hide inside a car with a metal body. Because once these buildings or cars are struck by lightning, their metal frames, lightning protection devices, or the metal itself will conduct the lightning current into the ground. If you are in a remote mountainous area, you can take shelter under rocks or deep in caves. If there is really no suitable place to shelter, find a dry, low-lying area, try to keep your feet together and crouch down immediately.
Master the method of estimating the distance of lightning
Learning to estimate the distance of lightning can roughly understand the actual distance between lightning and us. Specific method: judge based on the time interval between lightning and thunder. If the time interval between seeing lightning and hearing thunder is 5 seconds, it means the lightning is about 1.5 kilometers away from you; if the time interval between seeing lightning and hearing thunder is 1 second, that is, in the blink of an eye, it means the lightning is only about 300 meters away from you, indicating that you are currently in a dangerous environment of near thunderstorms. If you feel your hair suddenly stand up, your skin feels a slight tingling, or even hear a slight crackling sound, making a "squeaking" noise, this is a sign that lightning is about to strike. In this situation, you should stop walking, immediately crouch down, lean your body forward, wrap your arms around your knees, press your chest against your knees, curl into a ball shape, and never lie flat on the ground or support yourself with your hands. At the same time, try to lower your head, because the head is more susceptible to lightning strikes than other parts of the body. Do not crowd together with others or hold hands; maintain a certain distance between each other to avoid conducting lightning to others after a direct strike.
Seven effective lightning protection measures
1. Do not run in the rain (especially barefoot), because the larger the stride, the greater the step voltage through the body. It is also not advisable to quickly ride motorcycles or bicycles to rush through the rain.
2. Avoid isolated, tall, protruding, or uneven places. Do not stay on mountaintops or high ground, do not stand in open fields, and it is not advisable to hold an umbrella in open areas.
3. Do not stay on or near water surfaces. It is not advisable to wash clothes, fish, swim, or play by the river.
4. Try to use plastic rain gear and raincoats. Do not use metal rain gear, and do not carry metal tools or items such as umbrellas on your shoulders, nor hold metal objects high above your head.
5. Do not wear metal jewelry. Remove metal objects such as hair clips, necklaces, and keys from your body and place them away from your person.
6. Do not take shelter under large trees, high towers, or billboards, because the damp branches of a large tree act like a lightning rod. If you hold onto a tree with your hands, it is like touching a lightning rod with your hands. At the same time, stay away from tall metal objects and exposed metal objects such as water pipes and gas pipes outside buildings. If you have no choice but to hide under a tree, keep a distance of more than 5 meters from the trunk and branches.
7. Do not use your mobile phone during thunder, and turn off the phone's power. Because of lightning interference, the wireless frequency of the phone jumps and increases, easily inducing lightning strike accidents.
