GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — It's Severe Weather Awareness Week, and even though meteorologists aren't tracking any extreme conditions across the northeast Wisconsin this week, they are urging people and their families to have a plan in place for when it hits.
For many people, summer is the time when Wisconsin really comes to life.
It's a time for barbecues, little league baseball, and countless outdoor activities.
Unfortunately, it's also a prime moment of the the year for severe weather, which can be dangerous.
"When thunder roars go indoors," said meteorologist Chris Vagasky.
Vagasky is a meteorologist for the National Lightning Safety Council, and he's offering a few tips to protect yourself.
He says if you take proper precautions, they can enjoy the outdoors and minimize their risk at the same time.
"If you're doing anything outdoors, what is the forecast," Vagasky asked. "The distance that lighting can strike away from the core of the thunderstorm is about 15 miles. So anytime you hear thunder, you are in that range to be stuck by lightning. When you look back to 2006, 99.6% of lightning fatalities have occurred outside. The safest place you can be is in a substantial building (has electrical or plumbing and 4 walls with a roof) or a full enclosed metal vehicle."
Lightning heats up the air around it to nearly 50,000 degrees Farenheit, which is hotter than the surface of the sun.
Lightning is also coming down on the list of weather killers.
It used to be that lightning would kill 400 to 500 people a year in the U.S.
As we have gotten better at lighting detection and forecasting thunderstorms, that number has come down significantly.
Twenty people a year were killed from lightning.
