Electric shocks in storm

MORE than 170 lightning strikes were recorded at Highland Park during Thursday night’s storms in which two people received electric shocks.

Weatherzone meteorologist Kim Westcott said 176 strikes were recorded in a 10km radius in Highland Park while 2332 strikes were recorded on the Gold Coast overall.

A man was taken to Pindara Private Hospital around 6.30pm after feeling the effects of a lightning strike when he touched a metal object, while a woman in her 20s was taken to Robina Hospital in a stable condition around 5.20pm.

She was believed to have been touching a mobile phone that was charging at the time when the lightning struck.

UQ severe weather expert Dr Joshua Soderholm said metal was a very good conductor that lightning preferred to travel through.

“During a storm stay inside a car or building,” he said, adding phones connected by cords shouldn’t be used during such weather events. “A stronger storm will have more lightning, it’s a good indication of how strong the storm is.”

An Energex spokesman said there had been 70,000 lightning strikes recorded in southeast Queensland during yesterday’s storm.

Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist Sean Fitzgerald said the supercell was “almost the optimal storm.”

“(The Gold Coast) just got the lightning show and didn’t get the damaging weather like further inland,” he said.

He said the storm behaved as expected.

Mr Fitzgerald said today would be sunnier, but there was the chance for more storms by tomorrow.