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Looks like we will have a fair bit of stormy weather in the coming hours here in Wyoming. But no matter the season when encountering thunderstorms there are always tried and true ways to encourage safety both at home and in the workplace. Below are some great thunderstorm and lightning safety tips from the NOAA:

To prepare for a thunderstorm, you should do the following:

• To begin preparing, you should build an emergency kit and make a family communications plan.
• Remove dead or rotting trees and branches that could fall and cause injury or damage during a severe thunderstorm.
• Postpone outdoor activities.
• Secure outdoor objects that could blow away or cause damage.
• Get inside a home, building, or hard top automobile (not a convertible). Although you may be injured if lightning strikes your car, you are much safer inside a vehicle than outside.
• Remember, rubber-soled shoes and rubber tires provide NO protection from lightning. However, the steel frame of a hard-topped vehicle provides increased protection if you are not touching metal.
• Shutter windows and secure outside doors. If shutters are not available, close window blinds, shades or curtains.
• Unplug any electronic equipment well before the storm arrives.

Lightning: What You Need to Know

• NO PLACE outside is safe when thunderstorms are in the area!!
• If you hear thunder, lightning is close enough to strike you.
• When you hear thunder, immediately move to safe shelter: a substantial building with electricity or plumbing or an enclosed, metal-topped vehicle with windows up.
• Stay in safe shelter at least 30 minutes after you hear the last sound of thunder.

Indoor Lightning Safety

• Stay off corded phones, computers and other electrical equipment that put you in direct contact with electricity.
• Avoid plumbing, including sinks, baths and faucets.
• Stay away from windows and doors, and stay off porches.
• Do not lie on concrete floors, and do not lean against concrete walls.

Last Resort Outdoor Risk Reduction Tips

If you are caught outside with no safe shelter anywhere nearby the following actions may reduce your risk:

• Immediately get off elevated areas such as hills, mountain ridges or peaks
• Never lie flat on the ground
• Never shelter under an isolated tree
• Never use a cliff or rocky overhang for shelter
• Immediately get out and away from ponds, lakes and other bodies of water
• Stay away from objects that conduct electricity (barbed wire fences, power lines, windmills, etc.)

Facts about Thunderstorms

• They may occur singly, in clusters or in lines.
• Some of the most severe occur when a single thunderstorm affects one location for an extended time.
• Thunderstorms typically produce heavy rain for a brief period, anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.
• Warm, humid conditions are highly favorable for thunderstorm development.
• About 10 percent of thunderstorms are classified as severe – one that produces hail at least an inch or larger in diameter, has winds of 58 miles per hour or higher or produces a tornado.

Facts about Lightning

• Lightning's unpredictability increases the risk to individuals and prop4
• erty.
• Lightning often strikes outside of heavy rain and may occur as far as 10 miles away from any rainfall.
• "Heat lightning" is actually lightning from a thunderstorm too far away from thunder to be heard. However, the storm may be moving in your direction.
• Most lightning deaths and injuries occur when people are caught outdoors in the summer months during the afternoon and evening.
• Your chances of being struck by lightning are estimated to be 1 in 600,000 but could be reduced even further by following safety precautions.
• Lightning strike victims carry no electrical charge and should be attended to immediately.