bout to head out to do a roof of a lifetime are 1 out of 13,000,3 and men battery-operated personal lightning detector survey when the wind sud- account for 80% of lightning deaths. If to cart around with you, but these days it denly starts to bluster and the struck by lightning, your chances of dying might be easier and a whole lot less expen- clouds roll in? Hmm. Better are around 10%. sive to spend a couple of bucks and a few grab that raincoat and check But the best your lightning alert app. You way to survive Amight not mind getting a little wet—that’s is to avoid light- part of the job—but thunderstorms can ning in the first be dangerous and even deadly. According place. to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric You can Administration (NOAA), lightning kills an check th e average of 49 people a year in the United weather report States (Figure 1).1 Canada experiences 10 in advance, or to 12 such fatalities a year.2 One’s chances purchase an of being struck by lightning over the course $800 portable Figure 1 – The National Lightning Detection Network, with statistics from Vaisala, detects cloud-to-ground lightning strikes in the continental United States. Fatalities by state are shown from 2004 to 2013. Figure 2 – Screen shots from LightningFinder (left) and Spark (right). 3 8 • R C I I N T E R F A C E A U G U S T 2 0 1 7 minutes and download a lightning detector application/Website Price Platform Developer app onto your portable Apple or Android LightningFinder $5.99 iOS/Android Black Box Development device. www.lightningfinder.com There are various national and region- al lightning networks that use sensors My Lightning Tracker Free iOS/Android Jake Ruston and magnetic direction finders to deter- www.jrustonapps.com mine detected electromagnetic lightning RadarScope $9.99 iOS Base Velocity, LLC discharge. Locations are determined by www.radarscope.io triangulation, and the processed informa- Spark Free iOS/Android WeatherBug tion is transmitted to network centers that www.Weatherbug.com produce grid maps.4 Many weather services and computer apps use these networks, Storm (also Intellicast) Free iOS/Android Weather Underground such as Vaisala and WSI, a sister company www.wunderground.com of the Weather Channel. WeatherBug, by Figure 3 – Just a few of the scores of lightning apps available for North America. Earth Networks, which includes the “Spark” feature on its free weather app, uses its own app. Many apps require that they be open weather in your area, as tornados or other 1000-sensor Total Lightning Network. to “follow” you. Others don’t “follow,” but wind events without lightning involved These applications cannot tell you exact- rather ask you to set your location and give could catch you unawares and unprepared. ly where a lightning strike has occurred, but alerts based on that location. Basic apps Spend a few minutes to protect yourself and they can warn you of their distance so that are available for free from many sites, while your associates, and don’t take unnecessary you can hopefully take cover when danger more advanced versions, often called the risks when a storm is nearby. is near (Figure 2). Lightning bolts, however, “pro” versions by the same provider, may be have been known to crash down as much as purchased for less than $10 or are available REFERENCES 25 miles from their parent storms. by subscription for a few dollars a month 1. NOAA data from 1985 to 2014 Downloading an app that gives you (Figure 3). 2. Environment Canada alerts when lightning is detected within a It is an excellent practice to also set 3. NWS Storm Data, 2006-2015 certain radius of your location is advised your phone or portable device to provide 4. https://lightning.nsstc.nasa.gov/ if you’re not likely to constantly refer to an National Weather Service warnings of severe primer/primer3.html Roof Drainage Design and Calculations Roof System Thermal and www.rci-e-learning.org Moisture Design Roofing Basics Roofing Technology and Science I Roofing Technology and Science II Rooftop Quality Assurance Wind Design for Low- Slope Roofs - Part I: Understanding ASCE 7-05 Wind Load Calculations Wind Design for Low- Slope Roofs - Part I: Understanding ASCE 7-10 Wind Load Calculations Wind Design for Low- Slope Roofs - Part II: FM Global Guidelines and Best At your own pace, Practice Considerations on your own time, at your fingertips ... Online Educational Programs A U G U S T 2 0 1 7 R C I I N T E R F A C E • 3 9 .