Last night’s storm, in which the sky turned a greenish colour, was a pretty impressive if brief one. The wall of rain that came down reminded me monsoon/typhoon weather in southeast Asia. Although the storm lasted just over an hour, we got 52 millimetres (2 inches) of rain, 430 lightning strikes and a number of flooded-out roads. One of those lightning strikes killed a man who was taking shelter under a tree, which goes against every bit of thunderstorm safety advice I’ve ever heard.
While biking on the way to work this morning, I saw this felled tree at the corner of Dundas and Golden:
Police cordoned off the street and people from Accordion City’s public works department were working out how to remove the tree without crushing the van pinned under it:
Here’s a closeup of where the branch split from the trunk:
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"One of those lightning strikes killed a man who was taking shelter under a tree, which goes against every bit of thunderstorm safety advice I’ve ever heard."
Really? I was taught from childhood *never* to shelter under a tree during a thunder storm.
My understanding was that it's not okay to be under a solitary tree (or any exposed, elevated surface) in a clear area, as this carries greater risk of lightning strike. But it's (relatively) okay to be in say, a forest, as long as you're not directly under a tree and in a low-lying area, not in the tallest stand of trees. Presumably in the forest the bigger risk is dying from asphyxiation due to a forest fire ignited by a lightning strike.