The tragedy gripped the small Gabriel-Péri stadium in Courrières, in Pas-de-Calais, with fear. Jordan Denneulin, a young thirty-year-old football coach, was killed by lightning during training Thursday evening, while another man was seriously injured. Lightning struck before all the players had time to take cover. Already in 2019, several teenagers were also struck by lightning during football training in Saint-Nicolas-lez-Arras, in the same department. One dramatic example among others over the last twenty years.
Football fields concentrate the risks during stormy weather. A accident study published in 2022, reviewing 215 human accidents involving lightning in Europe over ten years, showed that “a little more than 10% of accidents occur in stadiums or football fields”, explains its co-author Stéphane Schmitt, expert within the Météorage network. If the majority of victims were in another public space, such as streets or parks, or working outside, the proportion of sports infrastructures in these accidents remains very high, given the surface area they occupy on the site. territory.
Multiple risks
“The risks are higher in open areas, without any obstacles in the surrounding area, such as buildings or antennas. On a horizontal, flat and unsheltered playing field, the players are the highest points on the pitch, explains Davide Faranda, director of research in climatology. Lightning will form an electrical circuit between the cloud and the surface of the Earth, and for this it will seek the highest point on the surface on the ground. » The individuals present then find themselves at the mercy of this intense electrical discharge.
The risk is however gradual depending on the environment of the sports field, in particular “its positioning in the city”, “isolated or in the city center”, notes Météo France. “The presence of stands” and “the proximity of the field to a lightning rod (such as a church)” also come into play. Floodlights, at the edge of the site, can also “constitute lightning rods, but they are not high enough for their protective perimeter covers the center of the field,” raises Serge Soula, teacher-researcher at the Aerology Laboratory in Toulouse.
And the danger doesn’t only come from the sky: lightning can also take players by surprise from the ground. On very large courses, such as golf courses, “the current flows along the ground and goes in several directions, forming tortuous lines,” explains the specialist. The surface of the ground then becomes conductive, and a person located near the lightning strike, without being directly hit, can be struck by lightning. An even greater risk during intense rainfall, the water retained in the lawn being a conductor of electricity, and even more so when wearing metal crampons…
“More prevention”
Specialists therefore call for the greatest vigilance during sports practices in stormy weather, including in the event of yellow vigilance, as was the case Thursday evening in Pas-de-Calais. According to the 2022 study, the vast majority of accidents occur at this alert level.
If you find yourself in the middle of a pitch at the beginning of a storm, it is recommended to run and take shelter in the changing rooms or, failing that, a closed car, away from the trees. As a very last resort, if no refuge is in sight, you must then “squat with your feet together, ideally your feet on an insulating material (skin coat, backpack, etc.)”, taking care to “space out from each other as much as possible,” explains Météo France.
But whenever possible, escape remains the number 1 reflex to have. “In 75% of accident cases, victims have more than 30 minutes between the moment they saw the flashes and the lightning impacts,” insists Stéphane Schmitt. The expert also calls more broadly for “more prevention” in the sporting environment, on the model of the United States, where “many guidelines (instructions) are provided in the event of a storm on baseball fields and American football. During the Olympic Games, “there will be significant weather monitoring to avoid tragedies”, but it will be necessary to continue on this path beyond the competitions, “to protect everyone”, he pleads.
