Is This Heat Lightning & Is It Unsafe To Be Outside In New Jersey When Present?

In some sense, all lightning is dangerous. I know this.

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But how dangerous?

After a Seaside Park lifeguard lost his life after being struck by lightning, the culture surrounding weather and safety and drastically changed here at the Jersey Shore.

Lightning detection systems have already been set up throughout the shore so we never see a repeat incident ever again.

Earlier last week, I was on the beach for a quick visit when I spotted something that I looked like lightning?

It has to be lightning. What else could it be?

After I saw a few flashes like the one I caught in the video below, I looked around and the crowds who were also on the beach didn't seem all that bothered.

Surprisingly enough, no one took this as a cue to leave the beach.

Everyone carried on happy as a clam.

So I recorded a few seconds of what I spotted and thought I would ask the masses.

First of all: What is this? I wanted to guess heat lightning?

According to Weather.gov, "the term heat lightning is commonly used to describe lightning from a distant thunderstorm just too far away to see the actual cloud-to-ground flash or to hear the accompanying thunder. While many people incorrectly think that heat lightning is a specific type of lightning, it is simply the light produced by a distant thunderstorm."

FYI: Lightning can be a threat up to 30 miles away so that doesn't answer much, does it.

Second of all: If the public spots this in New Jersey, should we get our butts indoors?

Or, does it look a bit more intimidating than it actually is?

Please send me any and all information on this topic at Nicole.Murray@townsquaremedia.com. It would be greatly appreciated.

Here are some other do's and don'ts to keep in mind while at the beach: