NORMAN, Okla. — A University of Oklahoma professor has helped invent a device that measures the likelihood that lightning will strike.
By measuring electricity in the atmosphere, the device provides advance warning that lightning may be imminent, said William Beasley, a University of Oklahoma professor of meteorology, who helped invent the Campbell Scientific CS-110 Electric Field Meter.
One of these devices sits atop the National Weather Center building at OU that soon will have its grand opening.
Beasley invented the device with lightning expert Leon Byerley of Tucson, Ariz. Campbell Scientific of Logan produces and markets the meter. It was patented in January.
The device costs about $3,500, plus another $3,000 for a solar panel, battery and tripod, as the system is set up at OU.
The NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida has relied on electric field detection for decades.
"They use a network of electric field meters," the professor said. "If the electric field is greater than 1,000 volts per meter anywhere on the place, you can't fuel a car, you can't launch a rocket, you can't do anything because there's a charge overhead and it could lead to lightning."
Larry Ogle, assistant director of the Oklahoma City Parks and Recreation Department, said workers at its golf courses and swimming pools monitor severe weather and tell visitors when they must seek shelter.
"But sometimes storms pop up immediately over your head, so I'm sure something like that would have some application," Ogle said.
Weather experts urge people to be aware that dangerous conditions exist whenever thunder can be heard within 30 seconds of visible lightning, which means the storm is within six miles. They also warn that this danger will continue until at least 30 minutes after the last lightning has been spotted.