Staying safe in hail and wind

Hail

• Do not go out to collect hail while it is falling. Severe hail causes bruising, cuts and head injuries, and the largest stones are falling at highway speed.
• Wait for the thunder to stop, and then some. The NWS guidance for going back outside after a storm is about thirty minutes past the last thunder. The stone will have shrunk; report that you measured it late.
• Indoors, get away from windows. Hail breaks glass, and it arrives with the wind behind it.
• In a vehicle, stop somewhere safe first: away from trees and power lines, off the carriageway. Then keep your back to the windows and stay low. Do not stop under an overpass.

Wind

• Treat any thunderstorm outflow as a wind hazard. A downburstA strong downdraft that hits the surface and blasts outward, producing damaging straight-line winds. It is the general term for what a microburst and a macroburst are size classes of. arrives with winds comparable to a tornado and almost no warning, and lesson 4 covered why you often cannot see it coming through the rain.
• Flying debris is what actually injures people, not the wind itself. Put a wall between you and it.
• Never approach a downed power line. Assume it is energised, whether or not it is sparking or arcing, and whether or not the lights are out. Report it and keep people away.
• High-profile vehicles are at rollover risk in crosswinds and gust fronts: RVs, box trucks, anything towing. If you are driving one and a gust frontThe leading edge of cool air rushing out of a storm, ahead of the rain. It is what makes the wind pick up sharply just before a storm arrives. is coming, stop somewhere sheltered before it arrives.