Why is it that in this day of high-tech, speed-of-light…
Thunderbolts & Lightning
I had to drive through the BIGGEST storm last night. It was like something out of an apocalypse movie!
Living in California all my life, I can count on my fingers the number of thunderstorms I’ve seen. So to actually be next to real lightning…and even a tornado warning on the radio…holy cow. This photo of the storm was taken from an apartment near to our building. It turns out to have been a record breaking storm for the city with over 750 strikes!
Those of you who have lived in places with actual weather: what are you supposed to do on the freeway during a huge storm?
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I live in Wisconsin. Other than slowing down a bit, there's not much else we do when driving during a thunderstorm. However, I have pulled over a couple of times if it was raining so hard that I couldn't see anything. In those circumstances you just wait it out on the side of the road.
Rain is nothing compared to the snowstorms I've had to drive in here. LOL
You know how they say that Eskimos have over 100 words for snow? On the Gulf Coast we have that many for rain. The best one is "like a cow pissing on a flat rock."
Ha! I love that. In San Francisco there's just "drizzle" or "OMGrainmaggedon" – the latter being all anyone can talk about and an instant trending topic on Twitter.
I agree with Emily. You're pretty safe inside your car during a thunderstorm, unless you actually SEE a tornado, then it's time to get out. Just slow down a bit, take care not to hydroplane, and if you really can't see, pull over.
I agree with Erin N. I used to drive through crazy thunderstorms on the NJ Turnpike from NJ to VA, and though I never pulled over (other people did), I had driven much, much more conservatively with my car's hazards on. (Seeing other cars with their hazards on was really helpful too. The blinking lights in addition to their brake lights kept me more alert when there was really poor visability.) Safe travels!
The car theoretically functions as a Faraday cage in the very unlikely event that you get hit, as long as you don't touch any metal our any part of the shell (this would be easier on the passenger side or in the back seat, just crawl up in a ball and don't touch anything). Though this is usually not a problem as long as the thunderstorm is not directly over you. Otherwise, I agree with the rest, just adapt your speed to the visibility or park by the road side if you feel uncomfortable driving. The most dangerous thing that has ever happened to me while driving during a storm are falling branches and other cars hydorplaning in front of me. Though in November i nearly got blown off the road while driving home during a storm, came home and realized that the storm had reached hurricane strenght and no one was advised to drive. If I had known that I might have stayed in town rather than driving 10 miles home (10 miles is very far if 2-3 of them are along open coast during a hurricane strenght wind storm). Glad you made it home all right, it must have been a mighty sight though!
Mims