Lightning Detector? Frequent thunderstorms, and knowing when it's safe to swim.

[markayash]

@ajw22 - what do you think ... too close for a detector??

Crazy stuff!

 

[Boat Drinks 74]

I'm trying to come up with a reliable way to keep my family safe when swimming. Do you recommend any lightning detector or app/subscription that will give accurate information on storms in the area?

Normally it's easy enough to say "there's a storm, don't go swimming" ... but in the middle of summer there is hardly a day without a thunderstorm. We currently have thunderstorms passthrough all day long, making it difficult to know when it is safe or not. Obviously we will get out of the pool when we hear thunder, but there has got to be a better solution out there. The standard safety advice seems to be the 30-30 rule ... "flash to bang" 30 seconds or less (i.e. lightning strike was 6 miles or closer) and then wait 30 minutes with no lightning.

I tried looking at the weather radar, but its not always accurate since storms pop up so quickly. I'm also not sure how much to trust the data here showing lightning strikes "in my area".

There are some devices that claim to detect lightning at various distances -- can these be trusted? I know commercial pools (and maybe places likes sports fields) have some device that does this.

What does everyone do to keep safe from lightning, and still enjoy your pool?

I use My Lightning App Pro for my job and find it to be the most accurate lightning device I've used in my career. I've used hand held lightning devices in the past but found they will alert when around outlets or directly touching a phone. The Pro version has a minimal yearly cost but it enables you to create a radius that will alert you of lightning when it reaches inside that radius. I'm able to click on a strike and it will tell me the time of the strike and the distance from me. I've found it to be very accurate. I set my lightning interval to 30min meaning the strike disappears from the app after 30min.

 

[Saturn94]

The local stations around here always say if you can hear thunder, then you are close enough to be struck, and the storm doesn’t have to be above you for lightning to strike you.