A woman had a close encounter with lightning during her morning walk in Jersey. While strolling along the beach with her dogs, her hair suddenly stood on end. She shared a picture of this electrifying moment on Facebook, and the responses were swift and serious. People warned her that she had narrowly escaped a lightning strike.
The woman described feeling a tingling sensation in her head and forehead, with her hair going static for about 15 minutes. She also mentioned hearing thunder from the French coast, approximately 25 kilometers away, which made her increasingly uneasy. She admitted, “I did start to get a little nervous and headed higher up the beach. Goodness knows what it would have looked like if I hadn’t had my hair tied back! It was a really weird sensation.”
However, the lighthearted conversation took a dark turn when someone pointed out that she had essentially become a lightning rod on the beach. They explained that her hair standing on end was a sign of an electric charge buildup, often preceding a “positive lightning strike.” The consensus was clear: when your hair stands on end, lightning is dangerously close. The advice from both the online community and experts, including the US National Weather Service, was to seek shelter immediately.
The US National Weather Service emphasized the importance of taking shelter in a house, large building, or all-metal vehicle during a lightning storm. Wet ground can conduct electricity, increasing the risk of a lightning strike. The woman was fortunate that she took heed of the warning signs and moved to a safer location. Others who shared similar experiences also expressed their surprise at how close they had come to a potentially deadly encounter with lightning.