# Showers & Baths - Thunderstorms **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 9, 2004, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showers-baths-thunderstorms/249532 "2004-06-09T21:49:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tiggrkitty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tiggrkitty/32/17966_2.png) [@Tiggrkitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tiggrkitty)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2004, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showers-baths-thunderstorms/249532/1 "2004-06-09T21:49:49Z")
Would you take a shower or bath during a thunderstorm? thunderstorms=lightning and lots of it What if those thunderstorms lasted more than a few days? Discuss. It seems here lately that North Texas has become the new Seattle. We have had thunderstorms for a week now. I was curious if anyone risked taking a shower or bath during one. I personally take a quick shower if the storm isn’t bad. Probably stupid, but going to bed dirty just doesn’t suit me. ---
**Author:** ![cmason32](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@cmason32](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmason32)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2004, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showers-baths-thunderstorms/249532/2 "2004-06-09T22:25:42Z")
I shower during thunderstorms (but I live in a high-rise). ---
**Author:** ![The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Asbestos_Mango)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2004, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showers-baths-thunderstorms/249532/3 "2004-06-09T22:31:35Z")
My mom and I have pretty much the same response to thunderstorms, especially the really wicked ones. Pop some popcorn, sit by the window and watch the lightening. I really don’t see any serious safety issues, though. I mean, aside from what’s actually inside the house and probably well-insulated enough not to draw lightening, isn’t most of the plumbing underground and more or less out of harm’s way anyway? Now, golfing might be an issue… ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2004, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showers-baths-thunderstorms/249532/4 "2004-06-09T22:37:06Z")
If a thunderstorm lasted more than a few days, I’d have a little more to worry about than cleaning behind the ears. I’d be checking my cubit to inch conversion sheet. 😉 But yes, I’ve showered during thunder/lightning storm. My PC goes off, though. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2004, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showers-baths-thunderstorms/249532/5 "2004-06-09T23:54:22Z")
Seattle does NOT get Texas-style thunderstorms. Nor do they get constant rain. That aside, I’ve heard weather guys saying not to take showers in a storm because of lightning. Whether they’re right, I don’t know, but I don’t trust lightning AT ALL. I am not fond of storms. Bad ones scare me quite a bit. I’d feel horribly vulnerable being naked in a shower during a storm. So no, I don’t. ---
**Author:** ![One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/838e76/32.png) [@One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/One_And_Only_Wanderers)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2004, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showers-baths-thunderstorms/249532/6 "2004-06-10T00:01:01Z")
colour me confused. I’ve heard of not talking on the phone. I’ve heard of not sheltering under tall trees. The bath/shower one is new on me though. What is the risk associated with showering/bathing during a thunderstorm? ---
**Author:** ![Booker57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Booker57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Booker57)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2004, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showers-baths-thunderstorms/249532/7 "2004-06-10T00:10:12Z")
Over 50% of the piping in my house is plastic. I’ll shower when ever I want. ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2004, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showers-baths-thunderstorms/249532/8 "2004-06-10T01:47:27Z")
The deal is that water conducts electricity. Same reason you should not swim during a thunderstorm, need to get your boat off the lake, etc. I am not the expert to come along and give a GQ style answer to this, maybe one will stop by …? But I’m pretty sure the issue is the water, not the piping. ---
**Author:** ![nesta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a4c791/32.png) [@nesta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nesta)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2004, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showers-baths-thunderstorms/249532/9 "2004-06-10T05:48:45Z")
Wow, you learn something new to be afraid of every day. It’s hard to imagine that it could have enough juice coming through the small stream of water up to my shower, but I guess there’s a lot of juice there. The other night we had quite the storm roll through. I lost power in the middle of it all, and as happens every time I lose power, I realized that without a computer, TV, or light to read (reading by flashlight gets old), I have absolutely nothing to do. So what was the answer? Take a shower in the dark. I remember being in the shower and feeling the thunder shake the house. When I was done, I realized the tornado sirens were going off, but no tornado showed up. Not only could the tornado have rolled through while I was unaware, I never thought I was taking my life into my hands by getting near running water. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2004, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showers-baths-thunderstorms/249532/10 "2004-06-10T08:07:03Z")
I have to say I just don’t see how taking a bath or shower during a thunderstorm puts you at any significant risk from lightning. With electronics or phones, they are connected to power or telephone wires, which are high up in the air and run for miles across the countryside. I can see where lightning can hit the wires, and then be carried along those conductive wires into your house and fry your electronic equipment. And possibly you, if you’re using it at the time. But the water supply into my house comes from pipes, which are buried underground, and pretty much the whole system is underground. By the time lightning reaches these water pipes, it has already completed a circuit to the ground. So it’s grounded! It will dissipate into the electrical field of the earth. It seems very unlikely that the lightning would flow out of the ground, follow the water thru the pipes into my house, out the shower into me, and then go … where? How would it complete this circuit? Thru the shower drain pipe? That connects to the main drain pipes leading to the sewer pipe, which is back in the ground again, right back where it started. This just doesn’t seem logic to me. Can anyone cite any statistics about the number of people killed by lightning while showering during a thunderstorm? I don’t expect it would be high. Seems more like an urban legend to me. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2004, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showers-baths-thunderstorms/249532/11 "2004-06-10T08:21:22Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > I have to say I just don’t see how taking a bath or shower during a thunderstorm puts you at any significant risk from lightning. It wouldn’t, except in the case of PVC piping from the main entering a house with copper plumbing. I can’t imagine this being a very common situation, though. The converse, yes. ---
**Author:** ![Emony\_Dax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Emony\_Dax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emony_Dax)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2004, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showers-baths-thunderstorms/249532/12 "2004-06-10T13:21:08Z")
Shower during a thunderstorm?? Are you guys nuts? My favorite place to be in a good ole Texas style storm is huddled in the closet under the staircase, thank you very much. But maybe growing up in tornado alley will skew one’s perspective. Really, I always thought it was the same thing as getting out of the swimming pool, and as another poster said, being vulnerable, naked and wet in a potentially deadly storm is not my idea of fun. ---
**Author:** ![Frank\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Frank\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank_2)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2004, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showers-baths-thunderstorms/249532/13 "2004-06-10T13:25:51Z")
In Texas do they shower outside in a tub? That would explain the “don’t shower in a thunderstorm” warning. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pyrrthon1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/2acd7d/32.png) [@pyrrthon1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pyrrthon1)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2004, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showers-baths-thunderstorms/249532/14 "2004-06-10T13:27:14Z")
Can anyone cite one instance of a person being killed by electrocution in a shower? ---
**Author:** ![Tiggrkitty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tiggrkitty/32/17966_2.png) [@Tiggrkitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tiggrkitty)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2004, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showers-baths-thunderstorms/249532/15 "2004-06-10T14:00:50Z")
I have seen/heard of warnings and on the [NOAA](http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/Flagstaff/science/lightnin.htm) page it gives a warning not to shower or bath during thunderstorms because of the metal pipes. My tub is actually a metal one instead of fiberglass. I was just curious as to _if_ others took those warnings seriously and is it really that risky. I think on “Unsolved Mysteries” there was a woman with MS, confined to a wheelchair who was hit with lightning as she was filling up ther bathtub. It did not kill her, but after a few days she was able to start walking again. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2004, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showers-baths-thunderstorms/249532/16 "2004-06-10T14:07:15Z")
So showering during a thunderstorm could actually be beneficial? Interesting angle you’re working there. ---
**Author:** ![Tiggrkitty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tiggrkitty/32/17966_2.png) [@Tiggrkitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tiggrkitty)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2004, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showers-baths-thunderstorms/249532/17 "2004-06-10T14:15:21Z")
> [@Casey1505](#): > > So showering during a thunderstorm could actually be beneficial? Interesting angle you’re working there. Hrm. Not really. Just showing that it is possible to get hit by lightning inside a house around a bathtub full of water. 😃 I think it would more than likely have the reverse effect on me, if I was one being struck. The wheelchair probably saved the woman’s life by helping to disipate the electrical current. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2004, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showers-baths-thunderstorms/249532/18 "2004-06-10T14:45:02Z")
So… should we not urinate with an erection during a thunderstorm? I mean that’s kinda be the same as sticking a 5 iron up in the air, right? ---
**Author:** ![Tiggrkitty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tiggrkitty/32/17966_2.png) [@Tiggrkitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tiggrkitty)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2004, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showers-baths-thunderstorms/249532/19 "2004-06-10T15:38:13Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > So… should we not urinate with an erection during a thunderstorm? I mean that’s kinda be the same as sticking a 5 iron up in the air, right? Mythbuster’s actually had something similar to this. Urine does not come out in a “steady” stream, it’s more of droplets. They tried to prove a myth about a guy getting electrocuted when peeing on a rail. Turns out by the time the urine hit the “hot” rail it was in droplets, therefore no circuit could be completed. So I think you are safe on that point. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2004, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showers-baths-thunderstorms/249532/20 "2004-06-10T16:19:39Z")
My mother always told me not to… Funny, it’s one of the few things I’ve ever listened to her on. But it’s since manifested itself into some kind of odd phobia more than anything else… I’ve attempted to take showers in thunderstorms before but… I always end up bailing after a minute or two. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showers-baths-thunderstorms/249532.md?page=2)