Speaking from first hand experience, not really.
When I was a counselor at Scout Camp twenty years ago, a group of five of us were hit. Technically, our picnic shelter was hit, we just shared it. Yes, our flies were welded shut, and one guy’s pocket change gave him a nasty burn on the thigh. Mostly what did us in and landed us in the hospital overnight was the concussive shock.
Wow.
[ RUMBLING VOICE OF GOD ] What part of “Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery” is unclear to you people? [ /RUMBLING VOICE OF GOD ]
For those who read the staff report before today, we’ve added a bit to address this.
[Doc Brown] 1.21 jigowatts [/Doc Brown]
Is this a prelude to the description of electricity as Dancing Electrons?
Excuse me for taking this further off-topic. (Actually, while this is off-topic to the article, it’s on-topic to the original post in this thread, so I’m not really sure if it really is off-topic.)
Using this logic, doesn’t that mean that all the oceans are part of the Atlantic Ocean? Is there some magical barrier somewhere that makes them seperate entities?
There may not be a big underwater wall creating a true physical barrier, but there are logical deliniations based on physical attributes that allow most of us non-mouth-breathers to understand that the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean different places.
As an aside to the guy on the bike, Aluminum is a much better conductor than Titanium, so even if it mattered at some point, he’s still better off than they are. Make sure that pointy hat is aluminum foil…
My mother was standing up to her shoulders in the Petawawa R, (near Ottawa Ontario Canada). We could see a lightning storm building some distanced from us, with mostly blue sky above. She suddenly yelped and scurried out of the water. She had received a shock comparable to a muted 110 house current.
The Petawawa R was a logging river (lots of tannic acid from rotting sunken logs) and it drains an area of the Canadian Shield which also acidifies lakes and rivers. We presume that the ion content of the river made it an abnormally good conductor, carrying the current for at least a mile from the strike point.
What I have learned about being safe from lightning:
If in an open field with no cover, sit on the ground with your knees raised. If you have a non conducting object, such as a pack, or coil of rope, sit on it. If lightning hits nearby, the ground currents will spread out for at least 20 feet in all directions. They might pass through you .
The idea is to present as low an object as possible while keeping the path of any ground currents from going through your heart.
If there is a high object nearby, such as a tree or wooden house, draw an imaginary line at 45 degrees to the top of it. Stand just insiide that line. This may mean that you are standing in the rain – so be it.
Never stand in the opening of a cave, or lodge. If the lightning hits above you it may jump the opening and pass through you. This is the reason you NEVER want to stand under a tree in a lightning storm.
If you are the highest thing in a lake or body of water, get out of there. The safest thing to do is to go over the side and float at least 30 feet away from your boat. Most people will not want to do this. Wooden boats will NOT keep you safe, and aluminum canoes are probably not any more dangerous than wooden ones.
You are completely safe in car or an enclosed metal boat.
Yes, you can get struck by lightning going through your plumbing. Most houses in the city do not have lightning rods, but instead depend on the metal plumbing stack that sticks up from the roof for lightning protection. If this gets hit while you are using the water you may be in trouble.
Remember, if you can hear the crack of the thunder you are ok for at least that time.
More on this from: Watery Grave
(Originally published in EDN Magazine, June 23, 2005)
A menacing thunderstorm catches you out on the lake in an aluminum canoe. As you paddle briskly toward shore, sensing the catastrophic danger of a direct strike by lightning, you face three choices: remain seated in the canoe; abandon the canoe and swim for shore; or invert the canoe and dive under it for protection, making a sort of crude Faraday cage.
Todd Hubing, past president of the IEEE EMC society, presented his solution to this puzzle at a lecture for the society. Lightning, Hubing points out, is so powerful that a direct blow kills you regardless of what you do. A full-sized bolt delivers something on the order of 300 MJ, enough to boil 1000 kg of water, explode the trunk of an oak tree, or fuse silica into solid glass. You will not survive a direct hit.
Your only options concern the “radius of survivability.” If you improve your ability to withstand near-miss situations, you improve your ability to survive.
Therefore, Hubing assumes that lightning strikes somewhere nearby but not directly on your canoe. When it strikes, megajoules of energy pass through the water. If your body is immersed in the water at that time, part of the lightning’s energy passes through you on the way to its final destination. Because it takes only a minute fraction of the bolt’s total energy to kill you, Hubing suggests that your best option is to remain seated in the canoe. The passing current then diverts through the hull of your boat, not your body. You may lose your hearing if it strikes close by, but not your life.
Inverting the boat provides no useful protection against large transient currents flowing through the water. This scenario might work in a severe hailstorm, but not against lightning. Stay in the boat.
Ignoring the apparent contradiction in your post, I think general boat safety rules would advise that you always stay with your boat. People drown everyday with no particular weather event as the cause.
If being off the water during a lightning event is to one’s advantage, there are very few cases when a swimmer will be able to reach shore before a boater. Also, assuming the possibility that another boat could come to your assistance, they are 114.7% more likely to find a boat than they are to find your pin-like head!
disclaimer: Pin-like is used in reference to human heads in general and does not indicate any knowledge of any peculiarities in the size, shape or composition of berger’s head specifically. All percentages are estimates.
Why? If you are in a canoe, you (and your canoe) are the highest thing around, and hence, the most likely to be struck. A better idea is to get the heck off of the water.
Experts disagree with this conclusion.