Thunder 'n' lightening

Wogan

Given that we are mostly made of salt water with a bit of fat chucked in, we are no more/no less conductive than a piece of metal.

I remember cycling home a couple of years ago when my wife called, pleading with me to take shelter quickly - she could see what was coming my way. I ducked into a building just as a cracking thunderstorm passed overhead, striking buildings all around. I later found out that a couple of people had been killed in the vicinity - struck down in the middle of Hyde Park. Since then I say "sod science" and I take refuge whenever I see the black clouds gathering.

<font size="1">Kenny Everett bent my wand </font id="size1">

urrrrrrrrrs

i can remember last October being in Paphos Airport ,Cyprus, it had been a glorios day noting to suggest a storm was on its way.I was sitting chatting to this army chap in the terrace bar who pointed up to the clouds and said if we dont get off the ground sharpish then we'll be in for an almighty storm and true to his word there was !!! we had to sit on the runway for 2 hours not going anywhere i have never shI**ED myself so much for the first 20 minutes of that flight(luckily didnt soil myself[:I]) and we arrived back at Gatwick 3 hours late

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i'd rather have a bottle in front of me,than a frontal lobotomy

Totalnewbie

Well there was no thunder/hail in my part of London at all, it was lies, all lies.

Apparently it's just showers today (though glorious sunshine at the mo) so I cycled in with jacket stowed in my pannier.

Small Fish

I live about 100m from where this happened yesterday - boy sat on his bike under a tree and was hit by lightening. I have no idea whether the bike was a factor, but clearly sheltering under a tree during a thunderstorm is a really bad idea.

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... tning.html

dsoutar

Errr, yes it is very silly

http://www.fema.gov/kids/sabrina.htm (rather neat web page I thought)

More serious info

http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/outdoors.htm

Quote: Bicyclist should lay their bikes on the ground.

However remember these are guidelines for the USA where they generally speaking have more violent and more frequent electrical storm activity

Asterixcp

What about this guy?[:0]

Pour vivre heureux, vivons le v‚lo..

Buggi

i think your more vulnerable on a bike but in any case rubber tyres won't save you for two reasons.

1. if lightning can jump from the sky to hit you, it can jump from you to the floor and bypass your rubber tyres.

2. if by some chance it didn't jump to the floor, it's like the "top gear" tip pointed out above. that car used a faraday cage, a new concept, which channeled the electricity to earth, thus releasing the charge. our bog standard car's don't have this so, i've been told, if you get struck by lightning in your car, to exit you have to jump out, not step out, because the car will still be charged because of the rubber tyres, and by stepping out when you put your feet down if you are still touching the car, you become the connection between the car and earth and then get electrocuted. so you have to jump so you are not touching the car when you touch the ground. it would be the same on a bike.

i always wimp out with lightning too. last time i hid under a bridge in the worst storm i ever saw, fork lightning coming down about 6 places at a time, either side of the bridge. it was really vicious and the thunder was deafening. knew it was right on top of me because the thunder cracked at the same time as the lightning. absolutely shat myself! i knew i had to ride over high ground to get home, so i just waited for the storm to go... thinking it would be about 10 mins, but turned out to be over an hour. the road under the bridge became a foot deep river with it's own current and every car soaked me. even my brother tried to come and get me but weather was so bad he couldn't get through traffic. ended up sitting in a rail station at 9pm (no lights on the bike, hadn't planned to be out that long!) cold, soaked through. thankfully, only cold because i was wet and not because the of the temperature (summer months) so didn't end up getting hypothermia.

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To infinity... and beyond!
my epic adventure: www.action.org.uk/~Antonia

Buggi

i was leaning against a window frame showing my dog what fork lightning was (she liked to bark at it. anyway, a big fork came down and i got a shock off the window frame (metal). does that class as being hit by lightning?

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To infinity... and beyond!
my epic adventure: www.action.org.uk/~Antonia

Alcdrewcp

But still the odds of lighting killing you are slimish. At 5-10%, not saying I would go out in the storm, but if I'm out not sure if I will hide, guess I'll have to see what I do if/when the time comes.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>http://www.orionlp.co.uk/info.html</i&gt;
Lightning is dangerous. Currently, about 30-60 people are struck by lightning each year in Britain of whom, on average, three may be killed.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

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This is where my witty Elephant prase would be. But Zebra's are so much better.

Buggi

i was watching the news last night and there was a bloke on there that got struck by lightning last week. he suffered burns down one side but did survive... thanks to his wet clothes. His clothes were so wet that the lightning travelled down the outside of his body using his wet clothes as a conductor, rather than through him.

so ... i think we're ok if we are soaking wet.

_____________________________________________

To infinity... and beyond!
my epic adventure: www.action.org.uk/~Antonia

cougie

We were camping in Wales a few years back and woke to a huge thunderstorm. Didnt fancy the tent so got family into the car and drove off for breakfast inside.

Found out the next day that a herd of cows had been sheltering under a tree that got hit and 20 or so of them were killed - that was just round the corner from our campsite.