I guess the first question is, what’s the deal with the title? Well, it’s actually a time for a little horse race that I like to call The Kentucky Derby, and further, it is the fastest time in which it has ever been run. One minute, 59 and 2/5ths seconds, 44 years ago, in 1973, by the fabled Secretariat, whose jockey, Ron Turcotte, is from just over the border, in Drummond, New Brunswick.
Now, there are 3 big races in the spring each year, comprising the Triple Crown. They are the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes.
Stay with me here, this will turn into a weather column.
So for each race, there are millions of people watching on television, and more than 100,000 physically in attendance.
And now we get to the weather part of the column. At the Preakness a few years ago the race went off during a heavy thunderstorm with cloud to ground lightning strikes occurring all around the track. A racetrack is a pretty wide open place, and it would have been so easy for a deadly strike to occur, hitting someone in the crowd, or perhaps one of the jockeys and horses.
That this was allowed to occur, underscores two things: somehow, the message (the two lightning safety rules, which I will get to in a moment) just is not getting through, and secondly, even if people are aware of the safety rules, we humans have a tendency to always think that “it” won’t happen to “us”. It easily could have. And sometimes it does. In 1991, a spectator was struck and killed by lightning at the US Open Golf Tournament and then, only weeks later at the PGA Championship, another spectator was struck and killed.
The lightning safety rules go like this:
1) If you can hear thunder, you are in the lightning threat zone right then and there.
2) Seek safe shelter immediately, and remain sheltered for a full 30 minutes after the last thunder has been heard. (This is because a thunderstorm *leaving* your area, can throw a bolt back in your direction, even if the sun has come out.)
So, back to that Preakness: that race should have been postponed for at least 30 minutes (actually longer, since the last thunder had not yet occurred). By the way, lightning will often hit exposed metal objects, and what do the horses line up in? A metal starting gate, on a wide-open track. I can’t begin to describe how dumbfounded I was when they let that race go off.
Regarding where to go when lightning threatens, the short answer is: “Indoors, if possible”. The National Weather Service has these *indoor* safety tips:
– Stay off corded phones, computers and other electrical equipment that put you in direct contact with electricity. In addition:
– 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.
If caught outside, if your car is nearby, it offers safe shelter if it is a hard-topped vehicle. Were lightning to strike it, the metal body would conduct the charge around you and then discharge it into the ground. Many people think cars are safe because of rubber tires, but the real reason is the metal body.
If caught out in the open, never shelter under a tree, and if your hair starts to stand on end, immediately crouch down like a baseball or softball catcher, the goal being to minimize your body’s contact with the ground. Also tuck your head and cover your ears because a nearby lightning strike can blow out your eardrums. By the way, you are not protected in an open shelter on a golf course.
Much, much more can be found online by just search on “Lightning Safety”.
It’s been wet and chilly for sure, but soon enough we’ll be in thunderstorm season.
Ted Shapiro holds the Broadcast Seal of Approval from both the American Meteorological Society and the National Weather Association. An Alexandria, Va. native, he has been chief meteorologist at WAGM-TV since 2006. Email him at tshapiro@wagmtv.com.
