If threatened by a tornado you should abandon your car and seek shelter indoors. If no building is nearby, seek shelter in a ditch or culvert. This should allow for most of the high wind and debris to pass over your head. One of the most common and underrated threats from thunderstorms is lightning. Lightning is one of the greatest dangers we face in Eastern North Carolina.
Lightning occurs with all thunderstorms.
One lightning bolt carries about one million volts and is hotter than the sun. Consequently, lightning is extremely dangerous and life threatening. Lightning bolts can travel as far as 10 miles away from a thunderstorm. Anytime a thunderstorm is nearby and you can hear the thunder, you are in close enough to be struck by lightning. Nearly every year, people in Eastern North Carolina are killed by lightning strikes.