Reports that a 56-year-old woman was struck by a bolt of lightning in northeast Wichita during this morning’s thunderstorm are false, authorities said.
The strike was reported at 11:18 a.m., a Sedgwick County dispatch supervisor said. The woman said the lightning came through a window at her townhouse in the 7400 block of East 32nd North. She was treated at the scene for a minor injury, the dispatch supervisor said, and refused transport to a local hospital.
“It appears there was a nearby (lightning) strike, but it did not strike the house or her,” Sedgwick County EMS Capt. Keith Maurath said.
Intense lightning was frequent as a gust front and thunderstorm rolled through the metropolitan area late in the morning. More showers and thunderstorms are possible later tonight.
Dark clouds, intense lightning, strong winds and spasms of rain are moving through the Wichita metropolitan area this morning.
No warnings have been issued, however, because the conditions are not serious enough to trigger them.
Winds as strong as 49 miles an hour have been clocked at McConnell Air Force Base, said Jerilyn Billings, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. All of Wichita could receive rain from this line of storms, she said, but the highest totals – perhaps a quarter of an inch – will fall on northern and eastern parts of town.
“If you’re lucky, you’ll get a half-inch” of rain, Billings said.
The frequent lightning poses the greatest threat to safety, she said, so people should seek shelter if they’re outside.
30 December, 20098:15 a.m.
It was a cool, wet summer in Wichita and much of Kansas. That made for a rather tranquil season in terms of severe weather. But there were a few head-turning storms, such as the tornado outbreak in central Kansas on June 15 and a hail storm that raked parts of downtown and west Wichita with large hail on July 8.
The massive hail storm brought with it intense lightning and thunder so loud it sounded like artillery explosions at close range. But by late August, nights had turned uncommonly crisp and days were remarkably mild for that time of year.
22 September, 20098:15 a.m.
Michael Pearce, the Eagle’s outdoors writer, stopped by my desk on Monday to comment on the intense lightning he witnessed early Monday morning northwest of Wichita.
He also wrote about it on his outdoors blog for the Eagle. It’s a good read.
14 September, 20093:57 p.m.
A single lightning strike knocked virtually every major broadcast television network in Utah off the air for a while Sunday night.
The lightning bolt struck a broadcast tower that is shared by a group of stations called DTV Utah. The blast knocked all of the stations that use the tower off the air, except for a FOX station that has its own tower not far from the one that was hit.
The affected stations remained off the air for about an hour.
While it was the large hail that deservedly turned the most heads during the intense thunderstorm that rapidly developed near Wichita Wednesday night and hammered the city, the storm featured plenty of lightning, too.
It was fascinating to see the storm blossom out of seemingly nowhere. Within minutes, the lightning intensified from quick flickers in the clouds to many large, bright bolts down to the ground.
What amazed me was how many people were still walking the dog or going for a jog in northwest Wichita even as large lightning bolts were clearly visible perhaps a mile or two away.
Jack Huber shared these lightning shots from his home in southwest Wichita, looking north and east of his back porch.
Following up on that stark image of a tree posted on yesterday’s blog, I thought I’d toss out some lightning stats.
There have been 63 people killed and another 208 injured by lightning in Kansas between 1959 and 2008. While April, May and June see the most tornadoes in the Sunflower State, the most dangerous month for lightning is July. That’s when 15 fatalities and 51 injuries have been recorded.
Weather officials have said for decades that trees are horrible sources of protection against lightning. A tree in Sedgwick County Park offered vivid testimony why, after being nailed by a lightning bolt on the night of March 7. Bark was blown 70 feet from the tree by the lightning bolt.
A reader asked me to check into how accurate the KSN Weather Labs are, since a lab in Augusta recorded a temperature of 107 on Aug. 11 — well above the “official” temperature in Wichita for that day.
I checked with Dave Freeman, KSN’s chief meteorologist, and here’s what he told me:
“The instruments that schools have as part of the KSN WeatherLab Network, powered by WeatherBug, are absolutely top notch, accurate and reliable instruments.
That said, sometimes variables like instrument placement can cause measurements to be different than surrounding areas. And, of course, there are occasional times when a sensor goes bad and needs to be replaced.
We work hard to support all of our KSN WeatherLab Network school partners in properly placing their instruments, and in maintaining them.”
I guess the bottom line is, take the WeatherLab readings for what they are: reflections of conditions at a particular location for that moment in time. If the thermometer provides readings that are consistently higher or lower than surrounding areas, keep that in mind when hearing the latest reports.
On this date in 1918, a single lightning strike killed 504 sheep grazing in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah.
The Wasatch is a rugged mountain range that separates Salt Lake City and Park City and was featured in the 2002 Winter Olympics.