TORONTO — An Environment Canada meteorologist says lightning can strike up to 17 kilometres away from a storm, giving the appearance it has come out of the blue.
That comes one day after a lightning strike in a Brampton, Ont., park left a four-year-old boy and five-year-old Kyus Caines in critical condition and put Caines’ 26-year-old mother, Dulce, in hospital.
Witnesses said the sky was a bit cloudy at the time, but there was no indication of an imminent storm.
Meteorologist Geoff Coulson says rain showers in the area briefly intensified Wednesday into a weak thunderstorm that produced about 15 to 20 lightning flashes.
That’s contrasted with Sunday, when massive thunderstorms raged for hours in the same area and Coulson says they produced “thousands upon thousands” of lightning strikes.
But Coulson says “one lightning bolt can be one too many.”
A woman was killed in Sunday’s storms after trying to take shelter from lightning and rain under a rubber dingy in the Port Franks area.