Severe Weather Awareness Week Day Two – Thunderstorms, Lightning and Hail

(KNSI) — When a severe thunderstorm warning is issued, it’s because of frequent lightning, high winds and hail are associated with it. Severe Weather Awareness Week continues Tuesday, focusing on hail, lightning and thunderstorms.

Chanhassen-based National Weather Service Warning Coordinator Todd Krause told KNSI News that storms contain multiple destructive threats, including straight line winds that can howl at over 100 miles an hour, and for this reason, they should be treated with the same respect as tornadoes.

Hail can also cause quite a bit of damage. In fact, hail causes a billion dollars in damage each year. Krause explains you can save yourself some money “If there’s going to be hail and it is golf ball [size] hail, you can do some simple things like moving some property or moving your vehicles into a safe spot, if you can.”

He says if you’re getting hail, then by definition, there’s lighting as well. Krause explains when it’s time to take shelter if you see flashes of light on the horizon. “Once you get the thunderstorm close enough to where you’re hearing sharp cracks of thunder, then you absolutely have to be inside, because lightning strikes in an instant. And so you really don’t have any warning other than the fact that it’s happening.”

Go by the 30/30 rule. Once you see lightning, start counting. If you hear thunder before you get to 30, go inside and stay there until 30 minutes after you hear the last clap of thunder.

Statistics show lighting kills around 43 people a year in the U.S.

On May 12th, 2022, Stearns County and western Minnesota were battered with severe weather as a rare outbreak of destructive thunderstorms produced widespread wind gusts of 80 mph and embedded tornadoes in southwestern, western, and central Minnesota, resulting in heavy damage and one death.

On Memorial Day, a morning thunderstorm produced winds up to 84 mph in Renville County, but a much more significant afternoon and evening outbreak of storms produced tornadoes and thunderstorms with wind gusts of 90 mph.

Have a way to get alerts and warnings on your phone and have a NOAA weather radio on and close by, especially if severe weather is expected during the overnight hours when you are sleeping.

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