Experts are warning people how to avoid lightning strikes, which have increased to 100,000 occurrences a month in Thailand. The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) says at least 1.3 million lightning strikes occurred nationwide last year, up from 1.2 million the year before, or more than 100,000 strikes a month on average. About 100 people are hit by lightning each year, and 30 of them die. Most lightning strikes occur in the South, followed by the Northeast and eastern provinces, particularly Chanthaburi and Trat, Egat said.

Prawit Leesatapornwongsa, director of the Telecommunications Customer Protection Institute, said people should avoid trees, and stay low when lightning strikes, especially if in an open field. Komson Petcharaks, from the High-Voltage Research Laboratory at Chulalongkorn University, said contrary to popular belief, wearing metal or even talking on a mobile phone during a storm would not attract lightning strikes. The lower part of a cloud has negative ions, which try to connect with positive ions on the ground.

"People can be injured from strikes themselves, or strikes which hit the ground then run from the ground to people," Mr Komson said. Most people were injured not from lightning strikes directly, but from objects close to them which conduct electricity. Risk areas include open fields (45%), trees (23%) and water sources (13%).

Lightning also causes problems for power transmission grids, which can affect energy security. "About 32% of power transmission line errors are caused by lightning," said Kitti Petchsanthad, Egat's transmission line technology unit chief. Egat has 11 lightning detection systems nationwide to help protect the grid, though sometimes they are not enough.

Source: Bangkok Post
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