PAGE, Ariz. — If this ever happens to you, find cover immediately.
Two women were at Horseshoe Bend in northern Arizona when they came upon an area of electrified air that made their hair stand on end. In a 2023 video posted to X earlier this week by AccuWeather, one woman reaches her hand in front of her and her hair immediately stands on end. The sound of electricity can be heard when the woman moves her hand through the charged air.
While these women were shocked at the experience — it could have ended a lot worse.
"Meteorologists believe they were experiencing a rare field of static charge that builds up before a lightning strike," the AccuWeather post said.
"If your hair stands on end, lightning is about to strike you," the National Weather Service says on its website.
According to the NWS, fatal lightning strikes are not common but not unheard of. Thirteen people died of a lightning strike in 2023 in the U.S. The odds of a person being struck in their lifetime (80 years) is 1 in 15,300, but only 10% of people struck by lightning die.
While the NWS recommended the "crouch" method for protecting yourself from an imminent lightning strike until 2008, they now say it is not recommended due to it not providing "a significant level of protection."
"Promoting the crouch gives people the false impression that crouching will provide safety," NWS officials said. "Even to promote the crouch as a last resort when a person's hair stands on end gives people the impression that they will get a warning sign or that there is something that they can do in that situation which would prevent them from being struck."
For more on lightning safety, click here.
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