Lightning map

FSU's new lightning sensor detects every lightning strike in Tallahassee to locations, which can be as specific as a street or actual house.

When a car is struck, the charge from the lightning goes around the metal frame instead, which acts as a better conductor. “People also think lightning has to strike them on the top of their head before they’re injured — not true,” Fuelberg said. I would always go to the front of the class and pretend to be a meteorologist by the classroom's map,” Desai said. Between 2011 and 2020, Florida led the nation in the number of cloud-to-ground flashes with 49 deaths. The sensor can detect lightning from as far as 250 miles, and the recorded times that the lightning energy travels are up to nine decimal places after the second, according to Fuelberg. The detector is part of the Earth Networks Total Lightning Network, and FSU is the only university in Florida with its type. “Most people who are injured by lightning are simply too close to a tree or something else that got struck. Lightning can extend 10 to 15 miles away from the edge of a cloud, which makes it possible for an individual to get struck. What does a lightning strike feel like? In-cloud lightning is five to 10 times more likely than cloud-to-ground lightning. Fuelberg has been specializing in lightning and thunderstorms for 15 years. Whenever there is lightning, its flash gives off electromagnetic energy similar to a radio or television wave.