Wild footage out of Augé in western France the place a lightning strike dropped a big tree in a cut up second. This serves an incredible reminder to by no means search shelter underneath bushes throughout a lightning storm (being underneath a tree is the second main explanation for lightning casualties).
Lightning strikes on bushes are attributable to two major components. Their peak, bushes are sometimes the tallest buildings of their environment, making them pure lightning rods. Additionally their conductivity, bushes have excessive water content material which makes them higher conductors of electrical energy than the encompassing air (10,000 x better than air). The sap and moisture inside bushes present a path of least resistance for {the electrical} present.
Bear in mind people, let this function a PSA to by no means cover underneath a tree when there’s lightning within the space. Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has a grim axiom about it: Higher to get moist than fried! If there is no such thing as a shelter out there, it’s best greatest to get as low to the bottom as doable, discover a melancholy within the floor or a ditch and search refuge there.
⚡️Unimaginable footage of a lightning bolt hitting and decimating a big tree in Augé, western France earlier immediately. Credit score: Benjamin Estrade pic.twitter.com/XazDFbR78l
— Nahel Belgherze (@WxNB_) June 29, 2024
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