SVR Call to Action

[Stormtracker_Tony]

Saw a recent SVR...Of course, you would expect the CTA to be "move indoors away from windows" or something to this nature....Nope, none of that...The CTA was "Don't take a bath"

uhh..wow! ok....lol!

[The Mockingbird]

Probably one of those European storms...

[MOCR]

That would make sense if it were for the danger of lightning, but a quick check of the recent stats reveals no fatalities from "bathing".

http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/statistics.htm

Evidently, swimming, fishing, and even "retrieving eye glasses" are far more deadly when it comes to lightning than bathing.

I even saw one or two where the activity was "taking out the trash".

I think I'll use that handy statistic when the Mrs is griping about the kitchen trash overflowing:

"Hey don't look at me- I don't want to get hit by lightning!"

Something else I found interesting- unless I missed one, there hasn't been any "officially" reported lightning deaths from using a telephone since 1996. Perhaps even later than that since the data set I was looking at only goes back that far, and "telephone" as a separate category was delineated. So maybe one good thing about the proliferation of cellphones is that people aren't getting hit by lightning using them as they might have using a landline.

[rdale]

Originally Posted by Stormtracker_Tony

Saw a recent SVR...Of course, you would expect the CTA to be "move indoors away from windows" or something to this nature....Nope, none of that...The CTA was "Don't take a bath"

Can you paste in that warning? I'd like to see it.

[Stormtracker_Tony]

Don't remember where (or exactly when) it was. It was one of those days a week or so ago when there was random SVR's in practically every state east of the Mississippi. Was too much going on at the time to post anything, but it came back later on as an afterthought. I don't recall the exact wording, but it was something like this:

"Radar indicated a severe thunderstorm capable of producing large hail and damaging winds near XXX.

This storm is producing excessive lightning. Unplug all unused electronics and don't take a bath"

It just cracked me up since that line was the only CTA. Nothing about moving indoors away from windows or any protective measures about the hail and wind. Simply unplug things and don't take a bath. lol

[qryche]

Some years ago, I was working a weekend shift filled with severe weather cut-ins and a couple of tornadoes on the ground. Of course, this occurred during a sporting event...so the nasty calls began. I used an on-air call to action of "stay off the phones during lightning", more to stop the calls than anything else. Cell phones were still in car phone/bag phone stage then and everyone used land lines, so that was still a relevant warning!

[Stormtracker_Tony]

Originally Posted by qryche

Some years ago, I was working a weekend shift filled with severe weather cut-ins and a couple of tornadoes on the ground. Of course, this occurred during a sporting event...so the nasty calls began. I used an on-air call to action of "stay off the phones during lightning", more to stop the calls than anything else. Cell phones were still in car phone/bag phone stage then and everyone used land lines, so that was still a relevant warning!

LOL! Nice one!

[Stormtracker_Tony]

Guess today you could tell people to stay off cell phones to free up bandwidth for emergency traffic.

Better yet, just be honest and let them know that you're going to fulfill your moral and FCC commitments of putting public safety first and that you'll continue to cover the storms and do not call the station to complain. I feel this is more beneficial in the long run because you won't lose ratings. The people addicted to these network shows aren't going to stop watching. Plus, despite there being a list of callers who do not appreciate the coverage, there's a much longer list of viewers that you don't call in that actually DO appreciate your coverage and they will appreciate it even more when they hear you stand up for their right to see that coverage.

[Wx3Guy]

Actually, you did overlook one. It was from 2006.

41 8/27 Sun MS McComb M 64 Inside Home On phone Thomas Harrington

But nothing of people inujured in the bathtub or shower that I could find

Originally Posted by MOCR

That would make sense if it were for the danger of lightning, but a quick check of the recent stats reveals no fatalities from "bathing".

http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/statistics.htm

Evidently, swimming, fishing, and even "retrieving eye glasses" are far more deadly when it comes to lightning than bathing.

I even saw one or two where the activity was "taking out the trash".

I think I'll use that handy statistic when the Mrs is griping about the kitchen trash overflowing:

"Hey don't look at me- I don't want to get hit by lightning!"

Something else I found interesting- unless I missed one, there hasn't been any "officially" reported lightning deaths from using a telephone since 1996. Perhaps even later than that since the data set I was looking at only goes back that far, and "telephone" as a separate category was delineated. So maybe one good thing about the proliferation of cellphones is that people aren't getting hit by lightning using them as they might have using a landline.

[MOCR]

Originally Posted by Wx3Guy

Actually, you did overlook one. It was from 2006.

41 8/27 Sun MS McComb M 64 Inside Home On phone Thomas Harrington

But nothing of people inujured in the bathtub or shower that I could find

No worries Guy!

I was browsing through the lists pretty quick. It was rather striking (haha!) to me all the various activities people were involved in when lightning struck...

[Stormtracker_Tony]

Anyone struck while on the toilet?

[Wx3Guy]

Yep, very easy to miss. I saw it my first browse through it, but when I went back to show someone else, I had to look three times to find it again! So, if you find a bathtub/shower report sometime, let me know.

When they tested the shower scenario on Mythbusters, they couldn't shock the dummy because of the spacing between water droplets. I wonder if a bathtub would be different though.

Originally Posted by MOCR

No worries Guy!

I was browsing through the lists pretty quick. It was rather striking (haha!) to me all the various activities people were involved in when lightning struck...

[Keyeser]

I will be honest, I will stay out of the tub or shower during a storm. There is always a first time for everything and I don't want to that person. I think I still haven't totally gotten over my childhood fear of very loud thunder and the association of close lightning strikes. I still cringe at both sometimes.

[Wedge]

I'm not so much worried about lightning coming in the plumbing as I am hitting the house and getting in my gas lines. I live in an area (northern suburbs of Indianapolis) where houses are frequently struck by lightning. The first year we moved into our new house, there were two homes in our neighborhood hit within a few weeks of one-another. Both houses sustained major fire damage, but not because of the lightning itself. It was due to the lightning hitting the chimney and traveling down to the gas line in the fireplace.

All the houses in our neighborhood have flexible tubing for the gas lines. It is a plastic/aluminum pipe that is yellow in color. When the lightning traveled down the pipe in the chimney, the spark arced to the pipe, puncturing the wall of the tube and starting a fire fed by a natural gas line. So now every time there's a storm I have to make sure the gas is shut off to the fireplace.