NORTH LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas recorded the second-highest number of lightning flashes in the nation in 2011 with nearly 1.3 million cloud-to-ground occurrences, according to data released from the National Weather Service in North Little Rock.
Texas had the most cloudto-ground flashes in the United States last year at just more than 1.8 million, according to the weather service.
Missouri ranked a close third behind Arkansas, with more than 1.2 million cloudto-ground flashes recorded last year.
In a typical year, Arkansas gets a little more than 826,000 cloud-to-ground flashes, said John Robinson, warning coordinator for the weather service in North Little Rock.
An Arizona company provides the weather service with its lightning information.
Robinson said the jetstream’s position in 2011 was key to attracting more lightning-charged severe storms over the Natural State.
In addition, the storms that formed tended to produce an overabundance of lightning, something “we don’t have an answer for,” he said.
“We had people calling us reporting that they wereseeing an unusual amount of lightning in their areas,” he said. “It was a very active year.”
Even with the secondhighest number of lightning flashes in the nation in 2011, the state had just one lightning-related fatality.
A 71-year-old Clay County man was killed near Rector while he was chopping cotton, Robinson said, noting that many people don’t recognize the danger of being outdoors during severe weather.
Nationwide, 26 people were killed by lightning in 2011, weather service statistics show.
“You should always get indoors if you hear thunder and wait at least 30 minutes after the last sound of thunder before you go back outside,” Robinson said.
“Many people think they may have just a few more minutes during an approaching storm, but once you hear that thunder, lightning is going to happen.”
Arkansas recorded several injuries last year from lightning, including at the Mena airport, where two men werestruck while riding in a small vehicle towing an aircraft.
Summer is the peak season for lightning, and the weather service’s lightning safety website at www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov offers dozens of tips to avoid injury or death by an electrified bolt from the sky.
Mac Stubbs, director of handicapping for the Arkansas State Golf Association in Little Rock, learned about the power of lightning firsthand a few years ago while he was playing in a southwest Little Rock tournament.
“There was a close strike, and I felt the hair on my armsstand up from the static electricity,” Stubbs said. “It was very unsettling.”
Stubbs noted that the golf association has strict rules when it comes to lightning safety.
When there is a lightning danger, “we sound a long blast from an air horn that signals a evacuation is immediate,” he said.
“Golfers are not allowed back on the course until it’s safe. If we see anyone on the course, even putting before it’s safe, they are disqualified. This isn’t to be mean or unfair to anyone. It’s to save lives.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 06/25/2012