This week Environment and Climate Change Canada is bringing awareness to lightning safety.

Kirk Torneby, Environment Canada, Meteorologist, says they have been bringing forth awareness to lightning safety for the last couple of years. 

Torneby, shares on average ten Canadians are killed from lightning strikes and 100 to 150 people injured each and every year. 

This year, Torneby says besides bringing awareness and actions to take when lightning comes your way; they are trying to dispel some myths."We're moving into summer season, when outdoor recreation really starts to pick up and that comes with some cautionary tales."

Many people may believe that in order to be injured you need to be struck by lightning, and that is not the case. "Majority of lightning injuries and fatalities aren't really due to lightning strikes themselves but majority of them are actually due to what we call ground current and side flash events,"

Being outside in an area where lightning strikes, say a soccer field for example, can cause an electrical discharge when it hits the ground radiating waves toward you; or likewise, lightning may strike a tall object near you and an electrical discharge from that object may impact you.

Another myth, Torneby, states is going towards a tree for safety in a lightning storm. " Trees don't provide as much coverage or safety as one expects. They might initially provide relief from the rain, but unfortunately trees happen to be tall objects in largely open spaces at times so a tree being struck by lightning is actually dramatically higher than you would think. The statistics that come from that are 20%of lightning deaths occur from people sheltering underneath a tree or an open gazebo."

Whether or not we are seeing more erratic weather or we know erratic weather is approaching faster, is a hard question to answer. "There are lots of aspects to it. There's aspects that people are just generally more connected these days so it's easier to share stories and pictures so it brings more awareness; and there is also some truth to, especially last year, it was pretty dry through the winter and then we had a really wet May that led to a lot of thunderstorms over the summer period. A lot of moisture laying around that acts as a fuel for thunderstorms."

If you want to keep an eye on lightning storms you can do so here. The mobile friendly map displays high-risk lightning areas in red, with animation showing the movement of the storms. The maps are updated every 10 minute and are based on recent lightning observations.

Torneby, concludes by saying, find coverage in a low lying area, all metal car, or inside a building when you hear the 'ROAR'; lightning awareness week runs from June 12-18.