Weather is something we all have in common. It impacts all of us, and it’s even the stereotypical small talk topic. It also can be one of the greatest influences on whether an outdoor adventure trip is fun, or miserable. I wanted to share my weekend weather adventure because I am SO PROUD of my friends.

A group of my climbing friends after a great day!

There are numerous clever/cheesy weather slogans designed to teach us weather safety so when we’re in a potentially bad situation, we can react appropriately.

I use them jokingly with my friends, but the message can be life-saving and I secretly hope the phrases get ingrained in their minds. When I see viral weather videos on social media of rescues, I get on my soapbox, say the silly slogan, and preach that if the person had followed it, no one would be risking their life to save them.

When approaching water over a road, “Turn around, don’t drown!”

Don’t forget kids or pets in the car when it’s warm outside, “Beat the heat, check the backseat!”

For rip currents, “Break the grip of the rip!”

Tornadoes get a slogan: If a tornado is around, get low to the ground.

My personal favorite, probably because I’ve had the most first-hand experiences seeing it disregarded, is “when thunder roars, go indoors.”

Here are a couple of lightning facts:

Lightning can strike up to TEN miles away from a storm, so you could be in danger when it’s dry and sunny overhead. The general rule of thumb is if you can hear thunder, you’re close enough to get struck.

High and isolated structures play a huge role in influencing where lightning will strike, no matter the material (wood, metal, granite, etc.). If you’re standing on a mountain peak and a storm is nearby, you could be in danger. If you’re huddling under a tree to stay dry, you may be in danger.

It’s not the rubber tires that make a car OK lightning protection, it’s that the lightning will travel from the roof, around and down the metal frame into the ground. So if you’re in a convertible or on a motorcycle, you’re not protected.

I am very adamant about following the lightning slogan. You can’t control when or where lightning will strike, you don’t know what it’s about to do, and that’s scary.

I’ve heard people talk nonchalantly about having a great view of a storm from the summit as it rolled in. How they got caught in a storm and had to climb routes in the lightning and rain to retrieve their gear. How they shrugged it off and waited out the storm outside. How they didn’t check the weather, got a late start to the day, and were summiting while the typical afternoon thunderstorms were popping up. I understand that things happen and we can get caught off-guard, but some of these situations could have been handled differently or avoided all together. That’s what concerns the meteorologist in me.

Last Friday during our morning newscast, I mentioned afternoon showers and storms for the mountains on Saturday during almost every single weather hit. My friends and I had plans to climb, and we decided to climb sort of nearby. We left Fresno before 7 AM to get an early start and as much climbing in as possible. This was good, just in case one of the storms just happened to pop up nearby.

Around 3 PM, several quads were driving back and forth on the nearby road. Around 3:15, there were rumblings that we all heard, but thought it was the quads. At 3:30, I was on a climb, and there was a rumble that was NOT a motor. Michelle’s dog, Bart, alerted us that he was worried, and we all looked at each other and collectively said THAT was thunder.

Thanks, Bart, for showing your concern when we weren’t sure if what we heard was thunder!

I didn’t have to say anything; I didn’t even have the chance to announce that when thunder roars, go indoors. My friends immediately said that we should go, even though the sky above was blue. No one complained that they weren’t ready to leave yet. No one suggested that we wait it out. I didn’t have cell service to check my radar app to see where the storm was and which way it was heading, but my friends didn’t hesitate to make the right decision.

I was lowered off the climb and back down to the ground, and we quickly pulled all of the ropes and packed up. We were out of there without feeling a single drop of rain.

When I got cell service in Fish Camp, I opened Radarscope and sure enough, there was a huge blob on the radar right where we had been climbing.

The storm we avoided.

Monday at work, I loaded more radar images from Saturday. Turns out, we barely missed the rain, and had we stuck around until 4 PM, we would have been dodging lightning AND half inch size hail.

Radar from my work computer. We were near the blue dot.

I’m happy to have found climbing partners who take weather as seriously as I do. Could you imagine if we all shrugged it off and something had happened? “Local meteorologist struck by lightning” is not a news story I want to be featured in.

You may ask why we even went outside if there was a chance of storms in the first place. It depends on several factors, but many times in the summer when the potential for mountain storms exists, they won’t start developing until after noon. In my eyes, that gives me PLENTY of time to enjoy hours of sunshine in the morning. If we had stayed inside that day because of the chance of afternoon storms, we would have missed out on the 7 hours of fun that we were able to get in. That’s half of a day! I’m all for optimizing my time here on earth, and I felt like we could do it safely. ☺

Struggling through a climb.

All smiles, even though I just climb through that white poo by my knee. Guano strikes again!

Bart’s human, Michelle, dominating a climb.

So, kudos to my friends for being proactive this weekend. I’m proud to be climbing partners with people who put safety first, not just with weather, but all around.

Next time you head outside, make sure you’re familiar with the forecast. Check your local news first, as humans are typically more accurate than an app (nudge nudge). If that’s not an option, check whatever source you have and trust. Your safety is number one. What you do with the weather information is up to you and becomes your responsibility, and I hope everyone makes good choices and has fun out there!