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⚠️ Why Showering During a Storm Is Risky

🚿⚡ A shower won’t “explode” in the Hollywood sense—but it can become dangerously electrified during a lightning strike

Lightning can travel through plumbing: If lightning strikes your house or nearby, it can follow metal pipes—and even plastic ones, since water conducts electricity well.

in protected areas and avoid touching metal surfaces.The current seeks a path to ground: That path might be through your showerhead, faucet, or even the water itself.

 Just because the plumbing is in the ground doesn’t always mean it’s grounded—especially when it comes to an electrical current as powerful as lightning. 

You become part of the circuit: If you're touching water or metal, the electricity can jump to you. That’s how people have been injured or even killed while bathing during storms.

Just because pipes and plumbing are below ground doesn’t mean they are safe from lightning strikes.

Given how lightning-prone our area is, it’s smart to:

Avoid all plumbing during storms—no showers, baths, dishwashing, or handwashing.

Wait 30 minutes after the last thunderclap before resuming water use.

Unplug electronics and avoid corded phones too—lightning can travel through wiring just as easily.

📍 Real-Time Lightning Tracking Tools

To stay ahead of the strikes, here are the best platforms:

LightningMaps.org Live global lightning strikes, animated maps, sound alerts Real-Time Lightning Map   

Blitzortung.org Color-coded strike age, detector network, storm tracking Live Lightning Map  

iWeatherNet Google Maps overlay, street-level strike data Latest Lightning Strikes  

These tools are especially useful during Florida’s peak storm hours (2–6 PM), when sea breezes collide and convection spikes.

🌪️ How Lightning Interacts with Hurricanes

Surprisingly, most hurricanes produce very little lightning. That’s because:

Hurricanes have horizontal winds, which don’t generate the strong vertical updrafts needed for lightning.

The eyewall and rainbands are usually too stable for the kind of turbulent mixing that sparks electrical charges.

But when lightning does show up in a hurricane, it’s a red flag:

⚠️ Eyewall lightning often signals rapid intensification, as seen in Hurricane Ian and Dorian.

Lightning tends to occur in outer spiral bands, where convection is more chaotic.

NOAA researchers now use lightning data to monitor hurricane strength and predict landfall impacts.