This week is Iowa Lightning Awareness Week.

Adair & Guthrie County Emergency Management Coordinator Bob Kempf encourages people to seek cover when a storm approaches.

“If you can hear thunder, you can be struck by lightning.”

Kempf says to wait at least 30 minutes after you hear the last thunder before resuming an  outdoor activity, because the danger can still be behind the storm.

“There’s no rationale as to whether it’s in front of the storm, or behind it. It’s just what the electrical charges are in the earth and the air and how it pulls that electrical charge out of the earth.”

The National Weather Service says participants most likely to be struck by lightning are those playing soccer or golf.