# Lightning. Umbrellas. Ouchie.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-umbrellas-ouchie/257481>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 29, 2004, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-umbrellas-ouchie/257481 "2004-07-29T19:25:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2004, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-umbrellas-ouchie/257481/1 "2004-07-29T19:25:24Z")

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Do metal-shafted umbrellas increace the chance of being struck by lightning?  
That is, do they function like lightning rods.

I’ve always disliked umbrellas.

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**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\
**Post date:** [July 30, 2004, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-umbrellas-ouchie/257481/2 "2004-07-30T04:19:44Z")

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Don’t know for sure but …

Anything conductive that tends to intensify the electric field intensity in its vicinity, like a narrow conductive rod or your finger, might very well be a good place to start an electrical discharge.

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**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\
**Post date:** [July 30, 2004, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-umbrellas-ouchie/257481/3 "2004-07-30T04:22:58Z")

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Here is[a site that mentions the effect](http://www.glaciermedicaled.com/Earthquake_html/Lightning/lightning04.html) and both Yahoo! and Google search have many more.