Toolbox Talk · ~5 minutes

# Lightning & Severe Weather

A storm doesn't wait for a good stopping point. On an open site, the crane, the scaffold and the rebar in your hands make you the tallest thing around the second lightning starts looking for a way down.

[Print the sign-in sheet](https://bluecraneworks.ca/tools?form=toolbox-talk-sign-in#form-library)
[All toolbox talks](https://bluecraneworks.ca/toolbox-talks.html)

## How to run it

Read it through once, then talk it — don't recite it. Five minutes
at the start of the shift, crew standing where the work happens.
Under O. Reg. 213/91, s. 14(3)–(4), the talk is held by a
supervisor or a competent person the supervisor appoints — and the
sign-in sheet is what proves it happened.

## Talk through these points

- If you can hear thunder, the storm is already close enough to reach you. Don't wait to see a strike before you stop work.

- Get off anything that sticks up and get away from anything that conducts — scaffolding, ladders, crane baskets, roof edges, rebar cages, chain-link and metal railings all become the path of least resistance.

- A hard-sided vehicle or a real building beats standing under a tree or under a pop-up canopy every time. A canopy with metal poles isn't shelter — it's a target with your name on it.

- Once the crew is inside, stay there. A storm that looks like it's passing can double back, and the strike nobody saw coming is usually the one that gets someone.

- High wind is its own hazard even without lightning behind it — loose sheathing, swinging loads, anything left hanging on a hook. Know who has the call to stop the work and what that call sounds like on this site.

- Have a real muster point the whole crew knows before the sky turns, not a shouted "somewhere covered" once everyone's already running for it.

## Ask the crew

- From wherever you're standing right now, where's the nearest hard shelter?

- Who's watching the sky today, and who actually has the call to stop the work?

- What's still tied off, plugged in, or hanging on a hook that needs to come down before we head for cover?

The answers are the real talk. If a question lands on a live hazard,
write it down and assign it a name and a date.

## Paper it

A talk without a record didn't happen, as far as anyone who asks is
concerned. Print these free:

[Toolbox talk sign-in sheet](https://bluecraneworks.ca/tools?form=toolbox-talk-sign-in#form-library)
[Field Level Hazard Assessment](https://bluecraneworks.ca/tools?form=field-level-hazard-assessment#form-library)
[Unsafe condition / hazard ID card](https://bluecraneworks.ca/tools?form=unsafe-condition-hazard-id-card#form-library)

## A new talk every week.

The toolbox talks page rotates a featured topic weekly — bookmark it, or grab the talk by email every Monday.

[This week’s talk](https://bluecraneworks.ca/toolbox-talks.html)
[Next: Ladder Safety](https://bluecraneworks.ca/toolbox-talks/ladder-safety.html)

[Eye Protection](https://bluecraneworks.ca/toolbox-talks/eye-protection.html)
[All 126 contractor forms](https://bluecraneworks.ca/tools#form-library)

## Next, from Blue Crane

- [**Field Level Hazard Assessment**The form the crew fills in before the work starts](https://bluecraneworks.ca/field-level-hazard-assessment-flha.html)

- [**Safe Work Procedure template**Write the procedure this talk refers to](https://bluecraneworks.ca/safe-work-procedure-template.html)

- [**Document Control Systems**Sign-offs, certs and safety records, provable in under a minute](https://bluecraneworks.ca/solutions/document-control.html)

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Source: https://bluecraneworks.ca/toolbox-talks/lightning-severe-weather