Lightning strikes can severely injure or kill workers whose jobs involve working outdoors!
OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration, www.osha.gov) in collaboration with NOAA (The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, www.noaa.gov) publish a fact sheet “Lightning Safety When Working Outdoors,” for outdoor workers, including workers in the construction industry and built environment.
OSHA and NOAA warn that “lightning strikes can severely injure or kill workers whose jobs involve working outdoors.” Regrettably, organizations in the construction industry and built environment from time to time neglect the occupational hazards and safety threats posed by lightning strikes, and endanger the lives of outdoor workers in the field.
Actionable intelligence and decision support about the hazards and threats of lightning strikes are mission critical to ensure the safety of outdoor workers on site. OSHA and NOAA organize “Lightning Safety When Working Outdoors” into the following ten sections about lightning hazards and lightning safety for project members and outdoor workers:
- Introduction
- Reducing Lightning Hazards When Working Outdoors
- Emergency Action Plan
- Lightning Safety Training
- Lightning Warning Systems
- If Caught Outside in a Thunderstorm
- OSHA Standards
- Helpful Resources
- Contact NOAA
- Contact OSHA
Within seconds after lightning strikes, WeatherBuild automatically sends alerts to your project members, to enable your field teams and work crews with ample time to seek shelter during threats of nearby lightning strikes. Lightning alerts are real-time and hyper-local — project teams get alerts in real-time within 10 seconds or less after a lightning strike occurs, and hyper-local with a cardinal direction and geographic distance of 250 to 300 meters from the actual strike locations.
Project members get automated alerts when lightning strikes within advisory, watch and warning ranges, and all-clear countdowns and notifications when lightning is beyond the advisory range. WeatherBuild leverages unique technologies for detecting and geo-locating lightning strikes, both in-cloud (IC) or cloud-to-cloud lightning strikes and cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning strikes. In-cloud lightning strikes serve as early warning indicators for cloud-to-ground lightning strikes.
Advisory, watch and warning range distances for lightning strikes within the predefined vicinity of your site and all-clear countdown distances and times are configurable for each of your projects, to meet your life-safety standards and best practices. Further, the content of each of the alert text message types are also customizable, to comply with your communications protocols for weather risk management and health, safety and environment (HSE) management.
More in the next blog post about lightning hazards and lightning safety for the construction industry and built environment…
(Source: https://www.weather.gov/media/owlie/OSHA_FS-3863_Lightning_Safety_05-2016.pdf)
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