. Kanyanga

By CHRISTETER MACHA-CHIZHYUKA –
SEVEN people struck dead by lightning; was one of the stories that made headlines last week.
‘Wizards exchange magic lightning with mealie-meal’ was another headline.
In the wizard’s story published of Monday, December 19, 2016 edition number 1195 of the New Vision, Chieftainess Kawaza of the Chewa people in Katete district in Eastern province warned wizards selling magic lightning in exchange with mealie-meal in her Chiefdom to stop or face deportation.
The concerned chieftainess bemoaned that within a week, nine lives had been lost through lightning with the tenth killed two days after the burial of the nine.
During the burial of six members of one family, Katete District Commissioner Joseph Makukula said he has never witnessed such a happenings in his life where a single family lost six members as a result of lightning.
In Kabompo district in North-Western province, between November and December 7 this year, the area recorded six cases of lighting accidents in which three people died.
Kabompo District Commissioner Shatewa Ndumba expressed concern at the high number of lightning cases, saying the situation calls for investigations as to why there are recurrent lightning accidents.
Around mid-November in Chienge district, three people, among them a four-year-old girl were killed by lightning.
At the end of November, two other people died after being struck by lightning during a heavy down pour in Mushona area in Zambezi district.
On December 16, 2016 in Chongwe District, a 22-year-old boy of Kayaya village in Chieftainess Nkomenshya’s area died after he was struck by lightning while two others got injured.
Recently, lightning struck the Kabwe-Pensulo transmission line in Serenje district burning conductors on five towers and causing loss of electricity supply to Eastern, Northern, Luapula, Muchinga and part of Central Provinces.
Stories about lightning being sold at markets like vegetables in some parts of the country are so common and yet lightning is a pure scientific phenomenon.
Despite lightning being a pure scientific phenomenon, there are certain myths surrounding it. some of which are associated with superhuman activities such as witchcraft.
Scientists define lightning as a giant spark of electricity in the atmosphere between clouds, the air, or the ground.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration-NASA, a United States government agency that is responsible for science and technology related to air and space explains that in the early stages of development, air acts as an insulator between the positive and negative charges in the cloud and between the cloud and the ground.
Adding that when the opposite charges builds up enough, this insulating capacity of the air breaks down and there is a rapid discharge of electricity that we know as lightning.
The Zambia Meteorological Department-ZDM said clouds, especially the cumulonimbus, are a dense towering vertical cloud and are associated with thunderstorms and atmospheric instability.
ZMD acting director Joseph Kanyanga said within the same, there are some segments or potions of water droplet and some segments having ice droplets.
“This alignment brings with it an electrical regime. Within a cloud some areas are negatively charged while others are positively charged,” Prof Kanyanga said.
Prof Kanyanga explained that when that alignment of electrical charges happens there is a tendency to complete an electrical circuit.
That completion then brings about an attraction of which the movement and flow later generate electrical sparks called lightning.
Within a cloud there is lightning and the alignment of electrical regime is normally at the base of the cloud where some charges would to connect with some charges on the ground.
When that happens, it attracts the stroke from the cloud base to the ground.
It is this type which normally brings about the lightning accidents being experienced, because the charges would wish to establish a medium through which to complete its circuit.
At times humans become passages. Human bodies have blood which is also electrically charged and could be deemed the media through which an electrical circuit would wish to complete.
On the high incidences of lightning experienced this season, Prof Kanyanga explained that the country is expected to receive fairly good rains.
A lot of thunderstorms are anticipated and they are the ones associated with cumulonimbus cloud from where those electrical charges are mainly found.
“Therefore expect to have a high incidence of thunderstorms and lightning occurrences this season,” Prof Kanyanga said
What compounds this is that the country had a fairly poor rainy season in 2015/2016, recording a lot of clear skies and maximized capture of heating.
The 2016/2017 rainy season is coming from a fairly sunlit 2015/2016 season due to less rain, as the clouds are falling there is a lot of heat which is bringing about the strong winds hitting infrastructure and because of the high energy we have thunder and storms.” he said
The main local factors affecting occurrences of lightning are the terrain, one of which he said are mountainous areas which tend to be more vulnerable.
By nature, mountainous areas tend to be rocky, and being metallic, conduction capacity is hightending to attract electrical charges.
A lot of lightning can occur in areas with high rise buildings because they tend to be near to the base of the clouds hence becoming closer means.
Prof Kanyanga has therefore warned Zambians to avoid being the only over exposed object with regard to proximity.
He warns against leaning to electrical wires and to be careful with roofing designs because of the associated down traps.
“Do not use traditional umbrellas with metallic tips which have high conductive capacity. Use ones which are covered with plastic or non-conductive modern tips,” he said.
Prof Kanyanga has advised construction companies to ensure buildings have lightning detectors.
Other safety measures outlined by scientists include staying away from open spaces and avoiding standing under a tree when there is a storm.
Another safety measure is get out of water as soon as one sees a storm coming and to shut off or unplug all electrical items and not to use the phone during a thunder storm.