Basic Lightning Safety

[fotogirl53]

So, I made a comment about taking shelter under a ledge to wait out a storm with extreme lightning while descending Kendrick a couple of years ago. I was about 2 miles from my truck in the thick, tall Ponderosas. The static was making my hair stand on end and I could smell the ozone from nearby strikes. Another member commented that taking shelter under a ledge or in a cave should never be done. I don't think I could squat down and wait it out. Does anyone have any thoughts on the matter?

[Grasshopper]

Several people struck in the Park recently ... I noticed the GRCA e-mails related to lightning have a new tag line - "If you see it, flee it. If you hear it, clear it."

I understand what "flee it" refers too, but what does "clear it" refer too?

[Alston_Neal]

Having put thousands upon thousands of miles on my road bikes, I always had a great dread at this time of year.
So one time I asked my friend a physics prof and Mr. Science kinda guy about bikes versus being in a car during lightning.
He said the rubber on the road part doesn't change, but having a gas tank between your legs could be disconcerting.
A few years our son's friend was killed by lightning out in the desert while dirt bike riding.
The consensus was that he had stopped and put his foot down. The lighting hit his hand on the handlebar and traveled across his body to the foot on the ground.

[Sredfield]

Several people struck in the Park recently ... I noticed the GRCA e-mails related to lightning have a new tag line - "If you see it, flee it. If you hear it, clear it."

I understand what "flee it" refers too, but what does "clear it" refer too?

I have the same question. ????

[Alston_Neal]

Clear the area?

[CannondaleKid]

The consensus was that he had stopped and put his foot down. The lighting hit his hand on the handlebar and traveled across his body to the foot on the ground.

Hmmmm. If it's a direct strike we're talking millions of volts along with 40,000 amps of current flow, so whether the foot was on the peg 6" above the ground or on the ground, unfortunately I'm pretty sure the end result would have been the same.

[azbackpackr]

Rather than asking us to do a division problem, not easy for some people, why do they not just teach the very easy old Boy Scout rule of 5 seconds equals one mile?

I hate to break this to you, but unless thunder is exactly 5 seconds after the lightning, this "rule" IS a division problem.

And I'm neither a boy scout nor a mathematician. I don't play one on TV, and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

All it is, it's counting. I see the lighting and start counting slowly. If it's under five seconds I may think it's getting too close. If it's over five seconds it's more than a mile away, so I may have time to take action. I can keep counting seconds, see if the time lengthens or shortens to tell which direction the storm is moving. At no time do I ever have to think about gazzintas.

[kingsnake]

38 year old incident, but I've never seen it before ...

"How to know if you're about to be struck by lightning: Amazing picture of brothers with hair on end minutes before they were hit"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... efore.html

[chumley]

I'll put that on a pretty obvious list of places not to be in a lightning storm!
http://hikearizona.com/photo.php?ZIP=106044

[kingsnake]

Lightning behavior & safety from a wildland firefighter perspective:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbRaGXRClrU

[azbackpackr]

The thing I am most pleased about is that we have made it almost all the way through monsoon without a single misspelling of lightning. ;)

[Alston_Neal]

The thing I am most pleased about is that we have made it almost all the way through monsoon without a single misspelling of lightning. ;)

We all do our best to make sure that at any givin moment you're at your happiest...... ;)

[azbackpackr]

The thing I am most pleased about is that we have made it almost all the way through monsoon without a single misspelling of lightning. ;)

We all do our best to make sure that at any givin moment you're at your happiest...... ;)

"givin"?

[CannondaleKid]

"givin"?

He's just givin' you some
;)

[tibber]

This was just posted over at the "glacier chat" forum and I didn't see the link on this forum subject. I apologize if it's a repeat: http://www.nps.gov/lavo/planyourvisit/u ... gement.pdf. It has some interesting diagrams and such.
Found this interesting in more ways than one:

The potential difference that appears between your legs or across your prone
body can drive significant currents through and over your body. You can minimize your exposure to ground currents by keeping your
feet close together, especially avoiding a prone position. These actions can help minimize the amount of ground current going through
your body, but most experts think these efforts are moot compared to getting to a safer location. We need to be careful that we don’t
give people a false sense of security by getting in the lightning position. Ground current contributes to 40-50% of lightning fatalities
(Cooper, 2008) so this is the primary mechanism we should be thinking of when reducing lightning risks.