Because of a recent scary close encounter with lightning (that I detailed recently if anyone wants to look it up), I have a question about lightning safety.
If a person is on the outside of a building with full electicity and plumbing, under the overhang and pressed up against the outside wall, and the building is struck by lightning, will that person have protection?
If you were in a field with trees and the only available cover was under the eaves of say, a locked building, would it be better to lie on the ground in a ball, or press up against the building?
Try to get inside an enclosed building or an automobile with a hard top (convertibles and T tops offer little protection).
Being in an open building like park pavilions, under an overhang, or even in a garage with the door open provides you with very little protection. In 2008, one person was killed next to a building and one was killed under a pavilion.
Definitely avoid the trees. Eight people (almost a third of the entire list) were killed taking shelter under a tree.
hehe. What about lakes? I enjoy kayaking, but enjoy it even more when the sun isn’t out (vitiligo). So, I end up paddling in the rain, which is nice, if there is no lightning. Are shorelines safer?
In 2008, one person was killed while swimming in a lake. One was killed while packing up camping gear into a vehicle near a lake. Two people were killed while taking shelter as they were coming in from boating. Three people were killed fishing on a boat (two of those appear to have been brothers on the same boat, so it’s really one incident). One was killed fishing on the shore.
While I agree that it’s best to get off of the water, the shoreline clearly isn’t exactly a safe place to be either. Find yourself some decent shelter.
I know it is best to get into a enclosed building or car. My question is if being up against a building is better than nothing, or if it provides no protection.
Electricity tends to hit the highest thing it can find and then moves down the outside. That’s why being in a car is quite safe - the current runs along the outside of the metal structure. That’s also why being next to a tree is not safe - the tree attracts the lightning, which follows down the outside and finds you. Being next to a house is probably quite similar in risk, and probably even more dangerous if the house has metal siding.
If I couldn’t find something to be inside, I would probably just get as flat as I could and hope for the best. You can always take consolation in the fact that very few people get struck every year. In fact, odds are that you’d be fine even if you were trying to get hit.
Rather than get flat, get low but keep your feet underneath you and together. The idea is to have the minimum potential difference (?) between your contact points with the ground so the current has no reason to run through your body. The lightning may strike a point and radiate outwards, you want the current to flow past your body, not through it. If you’re lying on the ground perpendicular to the flow then the current may go through you.
Exactly; lying down is a bad idea. Even if the lightning doesn’t strike you directly, the voltage gradients in the surrounding earth can still kill you if your body’s contact with the ground spans enough distance.
Learn what lightning is. A current that connect cloud to earthborne charges maybe 4 miles away. What is the shortest path? 5 miles across the sky to earth? Of course not. Shortest path is 3 miles down to the nearby tree and four miles through earth to those charges.
A cow was standing 50 feet from that tree. Therefore the cow was killed by a direct strike. Down that tree. Into earth. Up its hind legs. Down its fore legs. The four miles through earth.
Find work by Dr Mary Ann Keller from U of Illinois. Best position is standing with both feet together - the single point earth ground. Incoming on feet. Outgoing where? No outgoing path means no surge damage - no death.
If in an open field, they also recommend crouching.
Which is safer - on conductive soil or in much less conductive water? Well a fiberglass kayak in water and not touching the bottom would be relatively safe - as long as lightning has something nearby to strike such as a tree. Most only declare water as more dangerous because they heard a statement and did not ask for the whys? That answer (due to no associated reasons why) is almost as good as a lie. Some still believe water is more conductive than the nearby bank - rather than first demand numbers.
Answer always starts with basic facts such as which incoming and outgoing path from cloud to distant charges is more conductive. Why does lightning strike a church steeple? Wood is electrically a more conductive material. It provides a good incoming and ‘outgoing to earth’ path for current.
Not what I would have liked to hear, but a very informative link. Gracias!