TORONTO – A 16-year-old boater on Lake Athens, Texas, narrowly escaped being hit by lightning on Oct. 12.
Tucker Owings, a professional angler, was out on the lake during a storm. As his boat headed toward shore, a flash of lightning appeared just in front of him followed by several more strokes.
During storms, being out on the water is particularly dangerous. Water is an excellent conductor of electricity and its charge can travel much farther away from where the lightning actually struck.
Though it is commonly believed that lightning strikes move down from clouds, it is the other way around.
Negative electrons from clouds move toward the ground in a “stepped ladder.” Positive charges, which have accumulated beneath the cloud, move upward. This is called a leader. Almost instantaneously, an electric current, called a return stroke, shoots upward toward the cloud following the stepped ladder.
To watch a high-speed video of a lightning strike, click here.
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