MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. ( WWSB ) - In Manatee County, new systems to predict lightning are being installed at two beaches to warn the public when it’s time to get out of the water -- and under shelter.

The system, by Thorguard Lightning Prediction Systems, works by detecting static electricity in the atmosphere and in the ground.

“The Thorguard system has a system that will be mounted up on the roof. What that sensor does is it’s measuring the static charge in the atmosphere,” said Hunter Ross, the regional manager for Thorguard.

“Once that charge reaches a high-enough level, we know that there has to be some sort of dissipation of that energy -- or a lightning strike.

The system then hunts for an opposite charge in the ground. Once that once that reaches a certain threshold, the two co

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