What should you do when lightning strikes? Interview with BCSS Profs. Ullaland and Østgaard

Prof. Kjetil Ullaland, Lightning image: Cornelius Poppe, Aftenposten

 

During a spate of thunderstorms in the Oslo region last week, Aftenposten, a national newspaper, interviewed Profs. Ullaland and Østgaard from the Birkeland Centre for Space Science. The resulting article, entitled “Drop your umbrella and stand with your legs together: Nine good pieces of advice about lightning”, sought to warn readers of the worst dangers of being out during storms.

Some other advice: seek shelter if you’re in an open landscape, stay away from high structures and bodies of water, cars and airplanes are actually safe places to be, pull out the plugs on your PC and TV, unplug your internet modem, it’s actually not dangerous to shower during a thunderstorm…

Read the original article (in Norwegian) here.