A2 The BulleTin • Monday, augusT 8, 2022
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CORRECTIONS
LOCAL, STATE & REGION
How to stay safe when lightning strikes
BY MATTHEW CAPPUCCI
The Washington Post
Thunderstorms are a sta-
ple of the summertime across
the Lower 48, and they all
produce lightning — a wild
phenomenon that also can be
dangerous. In Washington,
D.C., on Thursday, two people
from Wisconsin died after be-
ing hospitalized with injuries
sustained in an apparent light-
ning strike near the White
House.
These bolts of raw electric-
ity ricochet through thin air,
arcing from stormy skies and
blasting whatever they hit with
a deafening roar. Lightning
can be mesmerizing, danger-
ous, beautiful and terrifying,
but how much do you know
about what happens when
there’s a strike?
What is lightning?
Lightning is an electrical
discharge and nature’s balanc-
ing mechanism for distribut-
ing charge throughout the at-
mosphere.
Thunderstorms become
electrified when electrons,
which are negatively charged
particles, are shaved off one
water particle — like a rain-
drop, snowflake or hailstone
— and end up on another,
leaving the former with a net
positive charge and the latter
a bit extra negative. Gener-
ally speaking, ice crystals ac-
quire a positive charge, while
raindrops take on a negative
charge.
That makes the top of a
cloud, where temperature are
well below freezing, positively
charged. Below that is a more
expansive “central negative”
within the storm. A shallow,
broad positive charge sits at
the storm’s base like the bot-
tom of a hamburger bun.
Most lightning we see is ei-
ther intracloud (within the
cloud) or takes the form of
cloud-to-ground bolts, most
commonly originating from
the middle negative charge.
The greater the electrical
field within a cloud, the more
“sparky” the storm will be.
How does lightning work?
Getting an electric spark to
jump through thin air is tricky.
The ambient electric field has
to be great enough to over-
whelm the “dielectric break-
down strength” of air.
Think of a dam. It prevents
water from flowing beyond
it, unless the volume of water
behind it reaches a threshold
sufficient to burst the dam.
Then the stored-up water can
break through unimpeded.
For air, that magic number
is 3 megavolts (or 3 million
volts) per meter for dry air (it
will change some in a storm).
Charge accumulating on the
surface will begin to bleed
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin file
A bolt of lightning fills the sky as an afternoon thunderstorm passes over Bend on Wednesday, Aug 5, 2020. The lightning sparked a one-eighth
of an acre fire off of Bull Springs Road west of Shevlin Park. Crews patrolled the forest looking for any smoldering fires caused by the lightning
in the days after the strike.
into thin air in a fine stream of
electrons known as a “corona”
discharge. That heats the ad-
jacent air, lowering the resis-
tance and making it possible
for that spark to begin spread-
ing in jagged increments.
It’s unclear what processes
unfold within a cloud, but
eventually what’s called a
“stepped leader” of electric-
ity races toward the ground,
leaping in a branched, fractal
pattern.
“Upward streamers,” or nar-
row tendrils of electricity, reach
skyward from the surface,
akin to a group of students
raising their hands. Eventu-
ally, the downward-stepped
leader connects with one of
the upward streamers to create
an unbroken channel of elec-
tricity between the cloud and
the ground. Current pulses
surge through the channel,
each causing a burst of light.
That’s why lightning appears
to flicker.
Surprising facts about
lightning
• Lightning isn’t that thick.
In fact, it’s only an inch or two
across. It just looks wider be-
cause of luminosity.
• Lightning is five times
hotter than the surface of the
sun. Within that narrow light-
ning channel, the electricity
heats the air to nearly 55,000
degrees. That causes a rapid
expansion of the air, which
produces the atmospheric
shock wave we hear as thun-
der.
• Lightning can be trig-
gered. Researchers at Los Al-
Lightning
flashes over
Central Ore-
gon in 2011.
Bulletin file
amos National Laboratory
in New Mexico use rockets
to trigger lightning, and then
employ high-speed cameras
and instruments to collect
data. It’s also well-established
that airplanes, helicopters,
tall man-made structures and
even wind turbines can spark
their own strikes.
• “Upward lightning” is
a thing. It’s exactly what it
sounds like — lightning that
leaps from the ground to
the cloud, fanning outward
along the cloud’s expansive
lower positive charge. In fact,
self-initiated upward leaders
are common from man-made
transmission/broadcast towers
and are an area of emerging
research.
• Some lightning is more
likely to spark wildfires. Al-
though lightning is extremely
hot, it is also brief. That limits
its window of opportunity to
ignite a wildfire. But instead
of current flowing between
the sky and ground in a brief
series of staccato bursts, some
lightning takes the form of
a “continuing current” dis-
charge. That means the cur-
rent flows over longer-du-
ration pulses. Because the
current is heating the ground
for longer, the odds of a wild-
fire climb markedly.
• Men are struck roughly
four times as often as women.
In the United States, men ac-
count for 84% of lightning fa-
talities, and women make up
the remaining 16%.
• Lightning fatalities are
trending downward. Because
of improved forecasts, educa-
tion and awareness, lightning
fatalities have declined sig-
nificantly in recent decades.
An average of 43 people died
of lightning strikes annually
in the United States between
1989 and 2018, but the aver-
age dropped to 23 between
2012 and 2022. A record low
11 deaths occurred in 2021.
Tips and facts to know for
staying safe when there’s
lightning
• Never shelter under a
tree. If lightning strikes a tree,
the charge can flow through
the trunk and laterally strike
individuals beneath it, or also
spread through the ground.
Many lightning tragedies have
stemmed from individuals
seeking shelter beneath trees.
• Leisure activities — es-
pecially fishing and boating
— are the greatest sources of
lightning fatalities. “[F]isher-
men and boaters are likely to
be out in the open and more
vulnerable to a direct light-
ning strike,” a report from
the National Lightning Safety
Council from 2020 stated.
• Lightning can strike even
in blizzards. Thundersnow
is real and it can be danger-
ous. On Jan. 25, 1990, light-
ning hit a light pole during a
thundersnow storm in Crystal
Lake, Ill. The charge traveled
through the frozen ground
and injured 11 people nearby
shoveling snow or pushing
stranded motorists.
• Lightning can travel 10 or
more miles away from a par-
ent thunderstorm and even
strike in clear air far from any
rain. These “bolts from the
blue” are often more pow-
erful and potent, since they
originate from the positively
charged top of a thunder-
storm. These are among the
most dangerous, since they
can strike in otherwise tran-
quil conditions. That’s why
experts recommend sheltering
at the first sign of thunder, as
that’s a sign that you’re close
enough to be struck by light-
ning.
• Ninety percent of light-
ning-strike victims survive.
There are an average of 30
lightning fatalities in the
United States every year. The
lightning strike that occurred
in Washington, D.C., near
the White House on Thurs-
day brought this year’s fatality
count to 11.
The Bulletin’s primary concern is that all
stories are accurate. if you know of an
error in a story, call us at 541-383-0367.
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LOCAL BRIEFING
Head-on crash results in injuries
A Redmond man was arrested fol-
lowing a head-on crash in Tumalo
Friday that seriously injured another
driver.
Jose Alvarez Ibarra, 46, was lodged
in the Deschutes County jail on suspi-
cion of second-degree assault, reckless
driving, driving under the influence of
alcohol and driving while suspended.
According to the Deschutes County
Sheriff’s Office, the crash occurred
around 9 p.m. on Tumalo Road near
Cline Falls Highway when Ibarra, driv-
ing east on Tumalo Road in a 2007
Ford Expedition, crossed into the west-
bound lane of travel and truck a 2015
Dodge Dart driven by a 17-year-old
Montague, California girl. Sheriff’s
deputies and bystanders assisted the
girl until Bend Fire & Rescue arrived
and took her to St. Charles Bend with
serious injuries, according to a release
from the sheriff’s office.
Ibarra was taken to St. Charles Bend
with minor injuries. After his release
form this hospital he was arrested and
jailed.
Tumalo Road was closed for about
four hours.
Man arrested after stabbing
A Bend man was arrested Saturday
after allegedly stabbing another man in
ing injuries.
Patterson was arrested at the Bend
emergency shelter and taken to the
Deschutes County jail.
Crash sends 6 to hospital
submitted photo/Crook County sheriff’s office
Prineville police arrested a man suspected of drunk driving Saturday after a head-on
collision with another vehicle caused the driver and five other people to be taken to the
hospital.
the abdomen during a confrontation.
Kevin Patterson, 51, was arrested on
suspicion of aggravated second-degree
assault, unlawful use of a weapon and a
probation violation.
According to Bend Police, Patterson
and the alleged victim, Manuel Garcia
Martinez, 35, were both staying at the
Bend emergency shelter at 275 NE Sec-
ond St., where they had previous con-
frontations in the past couple months.
At 9:58 p.m. Saturday, Bend Po-
lice responded to a report of subject
bleeding from his abdomen near the
intersection of NE Third Street and
NE Franklin Avenue. Police arrived
and provided medical care to the man,
Garcia Martinez.
On investigation, police learned that
Patterson and Garcia Martinez had
earlier been involved in another con-
frontation near NE second Street and
NE Emerson Avenue, which led to Pat-
terson allegedly stabbing Garcia Marti-
nez in the abdomen, according to a re-
lease from Bend Police Department.
Garcia Martinez was taken to St.
Charles Bend with non-life-threaten-
Prineville police arrested a man sus-
pected of drunk driving Saturday after
a head-on collision with another ve-
hicle caused the driver and five other
people to be taken to the hospital.
At 1:23 p.m. Saturday, Prineville
Police and deputies from the Crook
County Sheriff’s Office responded to
a report of a car crash at North Main
Street and NW Terrace Lane. Rodrigo
Ortiz Gonzalez, 45, of Prineville was
driving north on North Main Street in
a 2014 GMC truck when he crossed
the center line and hit small Dodge
SUV traveling south, according to a
release from the Crook County Sher-
iff’s Office. After being evaluated at St.
Charles Prineville, Gonzales was ar-
rested on suspicion of driving under
the influence of intoxicants, third-de-
gree assault, reckless driving and sev-
eral counts of recklessly endangering
another person. He was lodged in the
Crook County Jail.
Five other individuals were trans-
ported by Crook County Fire and Res-
cue to St. Charles in Prineville to be
evaluated and treated.
— Bulletin staff reports