The purpose of this article is to educate Aquatic and Recreation facility managers and operators on the need to pre-plan for thunder and lightning storm emergencies and to educate their employees and patrons on basic safety and survival skills. The key ingredient that defines a thunderstorm is lightning. Since lightning creates thunder, a storm with lightning is called a thunderstorm. Lightning causes thunder. Therefore, anytime thunder can be heard, the danger of lightning is real, whether you can see it or not.
Lightning is the visible vault of electrical ions from cloud to cloud, and cloud to earth.
When storm clouds gather, violent air currents separate ever-present electrical charges. Lightning's compelling objective is to complete a path to the opposite charge in the cloud or earth. The path of a cloud to ground lightning strike is not completed by hitting the top of a house, building or tree, but must continue until it reaches earth. An object is struck because it is a better conductor than air and offers a better path to the ground. However, since the object struck is not an adequate conductor, heat is generated, resulting in fire or explosive damage.