KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Lightning is 5 times hotter than the surface of the sun, reaching temperatures of 50,000° F. It's powerful, dangerous and can be deadly.
The United States had 17 lighting fatalities in 2018, two of which occurred in the Kansas City area.
One man died while fishing in Maryville, Missouri, and the other man was working on a roofin Kansas City, Missouri.
It's a weather hazard that may not get as much attention as tornadoes during this time of year, but should always be taken seriously.
The National Weather Service is known for their catchy slogans, such as "When thunder roars, go indoors."
Jeff Peters, a lightning expert with NOAA's National Weather Service, said finding shelter is pertinent for your safety during a thunderstorm.
"If you're outside, we could recommend that you seek a safe shelter building that has plumbing and wiring in it and if you can't find that, go to a car. It's important to be aware of what's in the forecast," Peters said.
This is crucial to remember when spring and summer activities bring you outside. Luckily, many outdoor parks and fields are prepared for storm season.
41 Action News Meteorologist Lindsey Anderson visited the Overland Park Soccer Complex and spoke to Mike Laplante, manager of soccer complex operations, to hear how he keeps players, families and fans safe on their field.
"We have a protocol in place based off the number of miles away from our location so at 12, 24 and 36 [miles], we get notifications of lightning strikes as they're coming into the area. Once we have a strike that gets within 12 miles of our location, we clear the fields," Laplante said.
This is critical because lightning has the ability to strike as far away as 10 miles away from the parent storm.
That means the Overland Park Soccer Complex would have to clear the fields if a storm is anywhere spanning from Shawnee and Lenexa, Kansas, to Belton and Grandview, Missouri.
Storms produce two types of lightning strikes: positively charged and negatively charged.
Negatively charged lightning strikes come from the bottom of the storm cloud and are pretty common during storm season.
Positively charged lightning strikes are not as common but are far more dangerous. These strikes come from the top of the cloud and can travel 10 to 20 miles away from the main storm.
"Those can be more dangerous because of the intensity of those cloud to ground are stronger," Peters said.
It's also important to know that clear skies don't always mean you're in the clear.
Laplante said he understands the difficulty of clearing the field even if appears nice and sunny at the soccer complex.
"The hardest part is when it's a nice clear day but the storms are just close enough. Twelve miles goes out pretty far from our location, and so something to the north or the east can happen and even though it's not bad here — and people do complain about that quite often. That's a gamble that none of us are willing to take and it's not worth it at the end of the day," Laplante said.
So the next time you're outside, even on a day where it's sunny at your location, remember "When thunder roars, go indoors!"
BONUS TIP: Start counting when you see a flash of lightning, then stop when you hear the first rumble of thunder. Divide that number by 5. The result is the number of miles between the lightning strike and your location. For example, if the the lightning flash and rumble of thunder were 5 seconds apart, the lightning strike is just 1 mile away.
