Lightning - What To Do When You Are Caught In A Storm

Imagine you are out enjoying a day in the outdoors when seemingly out of nowhere you find yourself in the middle of a wicked lightning storm.  What should you do?

Lightning strikes somewhere on earth every second and 67% of those deaths occur while participating in some type of outdoor activity.  According to NOAA.gov 216 people were struck and killed by lightning in the eight year period between 2006 and 2013.  Among these, the top three activities that had lightning strike victims who died were fishing, camping and boating in that order.  As an outdoorsman/woman it is critical that you know how to respond if you should ever be caught in a storm.

When a sudden storm arises while fishing, immediately retreat from the water.  Water is a major conductor of electricity and should be avoided during a storm.  The best case in this situation would be to get to your vehicle if it is close by.  If unable to reach a vehicle, I would retreat to a group of small trees that are surrounded by several much taller trees and try to wait out the storm.  If there are no trees, it is time to retreat to the lowest area around and crouch down to become the lowest "target" in the area.  Never lay down on the ground as this action will maximize your body's contact with the ground.  The idea is to get as low as possible while minimizing ground contact with your body.  Areas to avoid include stand-alone trees, rock ledges and outcrops and places prone to flooding in the event of a flash flood.

If you are camping when a storm shows up, get in your vehicle or go into a campground shelter (avoid getting into your tent).  If you are not in a campground, seek out the safest place in the area.  This could once again be a small group of trees that are surrounded by many taller trees.  Make yourself as small as possible with minimum ground contact.

When you are near a shoreline in your boat when a storm appears make sure that everyone has a life jacket on and get to shore and off of your boat as quickly as possible.  You don't necessarily need to get back to the loading ramp.  Make your way to the nearest cove that will allow you to safely get on shore.

In order to avoid the dangers of lightning, always check the local weather forecast for the area in which you will be and avoid going out when severe weather is expected.  Consider bringing a small along on your adventure so that you can keep up with the local weather conditions.  Storms can pop up without warning.

- Any day in the outdoors is a good day 

(Just be sure that you don't put yourself in any unnecessary danger)

Fishing Journal Entry 11 - Chased From The River

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June 20th 2016

After work this afternoon I decided to take my son to the river for a bit of fishing.  Being the first day of summer I figured there was no better way to welcome the season.  I drove down to the parking area  and my son and I began the half mile walk to one of our fishing places.  Upon arriving at the waters edge the day seemed perfect....well almost. Thank goodness I had my ThermaCELL Other than the mosquitos, the scene was picture perfect.

Inlet To The Missouri River

The temperature was 92 degrees with mostly sunny skies.

Mouth of the Inlet to the Missouri

The barometric pressure was 30.20 and slowly falling. 

Missouri River

The wind was blowing SSE at eleven miles per hour.

The river was up more than I had expected as it has been rather dry and hot around here for a while now.  I baited each of my lines with a minnow which resulted in one missed gar about 18 inches long.  My son also missed a gar that was similar sized. After fishing for about 15 minutes or so my brother arrived.  Sneaking up on us he decided it would be funny to scare the life out of me by reaching out with the tip of his fishing pole and poking me in the shoulder blade.  Yep....It caught me off guard!  I thought he was going to fall over from laughing so hard.  I have to admit...It was pretty funny.

My son enjoying fishing time on the Missouri River

Once the excitement of missing the gar had passed, I decided to bait one line with shrimp which seems to be an off-and-on favorite meal for the catfish in this particular spot.  It worked.  Not long after sending this morsel upstream I was helping my brother out and noticed my line had a lot of slack in it.  I began reeling and by the time I had the slack line back on the spool I noticed that the business end had moved quite a ways downstream.  I pulled the rod up and set the hook on a channel catfish that would make a couple of good filets.

Perfect eating size in my book

After catching this one I managed to reel in a soft-shelled turtle that was about ten inches long.  I should have taken a picture of it but I was too busy removing the hook from its mouth while trying to keep from getting bit.  When my brother and I were much younger I watched as my pet turtle bit into his knuckle and decided right then that was something I could live without experiencing.

I re-baited my hook and the weather began to change in a hurry.  A storm was moving in.  We attempted to wait it out as the wind began to push through, but when the lightning began to flash on the other side of the river it didn't take us long to decide to pack up our gear and head for the trail leading back to our vehicles.

The storm began to arrive

The Storm Arrives

Another view of the storm's arrival

Although we found it necessary to head for the hills before we were ready to leave, the time spent with my son and brother was a lot of fun.  We decided we'd rather head out than to take a chance on being struck by a stray bolt of lightning.  There will surely be another day to head back down to the river and pick up where we left off.

- Any day in the outdoors is a good day.... Even when mother nature chases you from the river.