June 21st through 27th
Warm Weather Heats up the Atmosphere
& Increases Chances of Lightning Strikes

Summertime is here, and this time of year is virtually synonymous with the love of outdoor activities.  Soccer & baseball games, firing up the grill, boating on the lake, weekend camping trips and going to the beach–all of these things might remind you of a flawless summer afternoon.  However, one thing that you might not be prepared for is the possibility of a lightning strike.  According to the Lightning Protection Institute, lightning kills an average of 62 people and injures thousands each year in the United States. “Summertime is the most dangerous time of year for lightning for a variety of reasons,” says Christopher Bean President of Alltec Corporation, a company that specializes in lightning protection.   “There are more thunderstorms at this time of year and people really don’t recognize the risk until it happens to them,” he says. “Every week I hear stories from people who lost everything and who didn’t have adequate insurance to cover the loss.”

Peak lightning season occurs in the summertime due to the increased number of thunderstorms. As the sun heats the air, pockets of warmer air rise and cumulus clouds form.  Continued heating can cause these clouds to grow vertically into towering cumuli nimbus thunderheads, often the first sign of a developing thunderstorm. As a thunderstorm grows, electrical charges build up within the cloud, causing charge of the opposite potential to gather at the ground below. The attraction between positive and negative charges can grow strong enough to overcome the air’s resistance to electrical flow. The cloud begins sending down charges called stepped leaders in the atmosphere.  Charge from the ground then surges upward at nearly one-third the speed of light and we see a bright flash of lightning.