2018’s first lightning death a reminder of its danger
Lightning slammed into a tree Saturday at the Woodpecker Mud Bog north of Lake City, searing down its trunk and spreading randomly along the surface of the dampened ground to where 23-year-old Kourtney Lambert had sought shelter from the rain.
Despite immediate attempts at CPR, Lambert became Florida’s first lightning-related death of 2018 — a reminder of the dangers posed as warming temperatures clash with late-season cool fronts, and summertime sea breezes begin igniting afternoon skies.
With another front expected to push through South Florida late today into Wednesday, National Weather Service forecasters are
predicting the possibility of thunderstorms. While no severe weather is expected, the biggest hazards are noted as lightning, gusty winds and heavy rain.
“It looks like we’ll have more general thunderstorms, but it only takes one strike,” said Chris Fisher, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Miami. “The general rule of thumb is if you hear thunder, you are close enough to be struck.”
Ahead of the today’s front, temperatures in the high 80s and soaring dew points will help prime the atmosphere for minor turbulence, forecasters said. The high temperature Monday in West Palm Beach was 88 degrees — seven degrees above normal for this time of year.
Today’s forecast is for a 50 percent chance of rain with a high temperature of 87. The overnight low is expected to be a balmy 70. The normal overnight low for early April is 65 degrees.
Behind the cool front, daytime temperatures should ease back to about normal near 80 Wednesday and Thursday.
Scott Cordero, the meteorologist in charge at the NWS office in Jacksonville, said Saturday’s storms were buoyed by moist air flowing in from the Gulf of Mexico, but cloud cover kept the most severe weather at bay by limiting the amount of warmed air rushing up into the atmosphere.
Still, special weather state- ments were issued because “any lightning can be seri- ous and people need to be cognizant of where to go,” he said.
Lambert, of Branford, in North Florida, and some family members huddled under the gooseneck of a trailer hitched to a fifth-wheel camper during Saturday’s storm near White Springs.
Images posted Saturday to her Facebook page are of a smiling, mud-spattered Lambert with friends before the storm, dirt-covered while video truck shows bump- a ing through a flooded field under cloudy skies.
Hamilton County Sher- iff J. Harrel Reid said four other people were standing with Lambert about 25 feet from the tree that was struck by lightning. She was knocked from her feet by the jolt. Family members began CPR when she didn’t recover, according to a sher- iff ’s report. The strike happened at about 2:50 p.m.
Typically, the immediate cause of death from a lightning strike is cardiac arrest.
“They gave her CPR, and she was taken to a hospital in Lake City, but she never was revived,” Reid said. “The oth- ers weren’t seriously injured.
One complained of numbness and tingling in her arm.”
Lightning is attracted to the tallest structure in a given area, which is why it’s not a good idea to hide under a tree.
Instead, lightning experts said people should go inside a substantial structure, a closed car with a metal roof, or bathroom if a storm erupts at a beach or on the golf course.
Lightning is not attracted to metal — an enduring myth — although metal is a good conductor of electrical current which is why lightning rods are used on tall buildings to direct the current into the ground. “It’s very random as far as the way lightning strikes and spreads,” said John Jensenius, a lightning expert with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “When it strikes something nearby and spreads, it literally goes up one leg and down the other, stopping the heart.” Florida regularly tops the nation in lightning-related deaths. In 2017, five of 16 lightning deaths occurred in Florida. The second highest state was Alabama with three. Between 2007 and 2016, Florida had 51 lightning deaths. Texas had the second highest at 21. “Lightning season is starting because you are starting to get more heat and humidity, but it really gets going during the summer when people are vacationing,” Jensenius said. “June, July and August are the most dangerous months.”