Thunderstorm Season Is Here—Don’t Trust the Old Wisdom

Spring thunderstorm season brings lightning back into daily life across much of the country. And with it comes a fresh round of confidently stated misinformation about how lightning works, where it strikes, and what you can do to stay safe. Some of these myths are harmless misunderstandings. Others are genuinely dangerous — the kind of wrong beliefs that cause people to make fatal decisions during storms. Lightning kills an average of 20 to 25 people in the United States each year and injures hundreds more. The majority of those deaths are preventable, and many happen because people trusted something they believed about lightning that turned out to be false.

Myth: Lightning Never Strikes the Same Place Twice

This is perhaps the most pervasive lightning myth in existence, and it is completely wrong. Lightning strikes the same places repeatedly, reliably, and predictably. Tall structures that provide a preferred conductive path to ground — skyscrapers, communication towers, isolated trees, hilltops — are struck multiple times during the same storm, let alone across multiple storms.

The Empire State Building is struck by lightning roughly 20 to 25 times per year. Lightning rods exist precisely because lightning reliably returns to the same high points. The myth almost certainly originated as a metaphor about unlikely events repeating themselves, not as a claim about atmospheric electricity — but it has been taken literally often enough to cause real harm.

The practical consequence of this myth is that people sometimes believe a location that has already been struck during a storm is now “used up” and safe to shelter under or near. It is not. If a tall tree in your yard has just been struck, it remains one of the most dangerous places you can stand for the remainder of the storm.

Myth: Rubber-Soled Shoes or Rubber Tires Protect You from Lightning

The belief that rubber insulates against lightning is based on a misunderstanding of scale. Rubber does insulate against ordinary household electrical currents — the voltage involved in plugging in an appliance or touching a wire. But lightning carries hundreds of millions of volts. The thickness of rubber in a shoe sole or a car tire is irrelevant against that kind of potential difference. Lightning will arc through the rubber and through you without meaningful resistance.

The reason a car is relatively safe during a lightning storm has nothing to do with the rubber tires. It is because a metal-roofed vehicle acts as a partial Faraday cage — the metal shell conducts the lightning current around the occupants and into the ground through the tires (which offer a conductive path at lightning voltages). Convertibles, motorcycles, and other vehicles without a full metal roof offer none of this protection.

Standing in rubber-soled shoes outdoors during a lightning storm offers no meaningful protection. The only safe response to lightning outdoors is to get inside a substantial building or a hard-topped vehicle.

Myth: If It’s Not Raining, You’re Safe from Lightning

Lightning can and does strike miles away from any rainfall. The electrical charges that produce lightning build in thunderstorm clouds, but the lightning itself can discharge to the ground well outside the rain area. Bolts that strike from a clear or partly cloudy sky, sometimes called “bolts from the blue,” can travel horizontally for 10 miles or more from the storm before striking the ground.

This is why the 30-30 rule exists: if the time between a lightning flash and thunder is 30 seconds or less, you are within six miles of the strike and should seek shelter immediately. And once you reach shelter, you should stay there for 30 minutes after the last thunder — not just until the rain stops. The storm may have moved past you while still close enough for a bolt to reach your location.

People are struck by lightning while standing under clear skies because the storm that produced the bolt was visible only on the horizon, or not visible at all. “It wasn’t even raining where I was” is one of the most common statements in lightning injury reports.

Myth: A Tree Is a Safe Place to Shelter from Lightning

Tall, isolated trees are among the most dangerous places to stand during a lightning storm. Lightning preferentially strikes the tallest objects in an area, and trees provide a conductive path to ground — water and sap conduct electricity reasonably well, particularly in a living tree. When lightning strikes a tree, the current travels down the trunk and spreads outward through the root system and along the ground surface. A person standing within 30 feet of a struck tree can receive a lethal ground current even without being directly struck.

The specific danger of standing under a tree for “shelter” from rain during a storm is so well-established that it appears in nearly every lightning safety guide ever published, yet it remains a common behavior. Being wet is uncomfortable. Being struck by lightning or its ground current is fatal. The discomfort of standing in rain in an open area away from trees is far preferable to the alternative.

If caught outdoors with no access to a building or vehicle, move away from tall isolated trees, hilltops, open fields, and bodies of water. Get to low ground and crouch down — do not lie flat — making yourself as small a target as possible while minimizing ground contact.

Myth: You Can Tell How Far Away Lightning Is by Counting to 30

The actual rule — counting seconds between the flash and thunder and dividing by five to estimate distance in miles — is real and approximately accurate. What’s wrong is the version that tells people to count to 30 before worrying. By the time thunder is audible at all, the storm is close enough to be dangerous.

Thunder travels roughly a mile every five seconds. If you count five seconds between flash and thunder, the strike was about a mile away. If you count 30 seconds, it was about six miles away — still within potential striking range, as described above.

The useful version of the count isn’t to determine whether you need to take cover — you need to take cover as soon as thunder is audible at any distance. The count is useful for tracking whether a storm is approaching or retreating: if the count gets shorter between successive bolts, the storm is moving toward you; if it gets longer, it’s moving away.

Myth: Lightning Victims Carry a Charge and Are Dangerous to Touch

People struck by lightning do not retain an electrical charge. Lightning is a single, extremely brief discharge — it lasts a fraction of a second. There is no stored charge in a lightning victim’s body after the strike. Touching or moving a lightning victim is completely safe and should be done immediately. Lightning victims who are unresponsive may need CPR, and delay in providing it — because bystanders believed they might be electrocuted by touching the victim — has cost lives.

Lightning injuries and deaths are often survivable with prompt treatment. The heart may stop or go into arrhythmia from the electrical disruption, but CPR and AED use can be effective. Every second of delay reduces the odds. If you witness someone struck by lightning, call 911 and begin first aid immediately. You are in no danger from the victim.

What Actually Keeps You Safe

The real lightning safety guidance is straightforward, well-established, and consistent: when thunder is audible, get inside a substantial building or a hard-topped metal vehicle and stay there until 30 minutes after the last thunder. Avoid plumbing and corded electronics inside during the storm, as lightning striking the building can travel through pipes and wiring. If caught outdoors with no shelter available, avoid tall isolated objects, water, and hilltops; crouch low in a depression if possible.

That’s it. No counting, no rubber shoes, no safe trees, no depleted strike zones. The atmosphere doesn’t observe any of those rules — and during spring thunderstorm season, it’s testing them regularly.