Lightning - Electrics, Hammocks And The 30/30 Rule

[nickg]

so given a fairly standard bushcraft scenario:
you're in a large wooded area prehaps miles from "SAFE"shelter
(lets say you hiked there!)
you have a standard tarp or poncho,
natrual leaf shelters,
and a hammock

what is the best option to the bushcrafter?

do you run, laydown, or get in one of the above shelters?

would a aluminium lined sheet or tin foil offer any form of protection if you made it into a Faraday cage?(electric cage?)

My option (unsupported by fact) Sit down somewhere dry and wait till it stops raining. You will get wet - you're unlikely to get fried. You are in a 'target rich environment' the odds are working for you so get comfortable and wait it out

 

[Adi]

Nickg it is all about good advice but your right you are never 100% safe, most lightning strike are from secondary strikes and it is very rare for a direct strike to hit anyone. As for your Artillery officer it sounds as if he was struck by a secondary strike or a very very weak primary strike which i doubt. If he had been hit by a full on primary strike you would have described a lot more than two small pin holes.

If it was a direct strike. It was not a case that the tanks would have attracted the lightning more than the person, it does not work like that. The Tanks, the humans and any other prominent object would have gave off ions in the form of a streamer. The only reason he was struck was because the step leader from the storm made contact with the streamer coming from him. If it had made contact with another streamer then that object would have been struck.

As for Cumbria looking at yearly sferics there is no greater occurrence of CG lightning there than anywhere else in the UK. In fact statistically they experience around half the number of thunder days than the southeast of England. And, most of the thunder they do experience are thanks to orographic lift.

The 30/30 rule is an American formula invented to help protect little league baseball games, kids were being put to server risk and being injured by lightning striking baseball fields. I dont have the statistics but kids dying every year so the Little league came up with this rule which has been adopted by all kids sports and schools in the US and by most sports and business. This has also been adopted by many weather companies around the world because it is the only safe advice for anyone in the outdoors. And, it is very good advice.

 

[Adi]

so given a fairly standard bushcraft scenario:
you're in a large wooded area prehaps miles from "SAFE"shelter

what is the best option to the bushcrafter?

would a aluminium lined sheet or tin foil offer any form of protection if you made it into a Faraday cage?(electric cage?)

If you are in a large wooded area you would be relatively safe providing the tree canopy is fairly regular in height. If there are higher trees in the forest they would be at a slightly higher risk of being hit.

It is very unlikely you would experience a direct strike in the middle of the woods but a secondary strike is possible. As Nickg has stated the expansion of water in a tree will make the tree split and at times this can be explosive.

My advise is to sit under your shelter and wait for the storm to pass.

As for your Faraday cage idea, no sorry a space blanket will not save you, most are not metal but plastic and are flammable. And, a Faraday cage has to be made of a grade of metal that can match the force of strike. The only Faraday cage to have been tested by a real full power lightning strike is a cars and aeroplanes.

 

[RAPPLEBY2000]

would a aluminium lined sheet or tin foil offer any form of protection if you made it into a Faraday cage?(electric cage?)

it was a bit of a long shot eh!

i shall try to remember your advice!

 

[nickg]

No dramas Adi, youre obviously well 'grounded' on the subject (yuk yuk). I can only speak from personal experience. I've never seen a tree actually hit by lightning but I've seen the product still steaming and the furrows in the cornfield adjacent to it where the steam & debris jets hit. Several quite long furrows radially fron the bole of the tree. Quite an eye opener.
By the by at a medieval combat demonstration early this year a helpful old lady advised me to go and stand in a tent if it started to thunder, I was wearing a full suit of plate armour at the time. It did make me wonder whether a soaking wet canvas tent higher than me would present a better attractor/conducter that a dry steel suit of armour. Needless to say I made no practical experiment. It takes me around 20mins to fully suit up normally, at the first clap of thunder it took me inside of 4 minutes to get out of it, I think it may have set a world record lol!

 

[Adi]

Here is some more information on the 30/30 rule aimed at the kids.

http://www.floridadisaster.org/kids/downloads/Grade1_30-30Rule.pdf

 

[Adi]

For those of you that like lightning here are some of my images from tonight's storm that made landfall on the south coast between Portsmouth and Southampton.

 

[Abbe Osram]

Two days ago on a medival festival one of the knights got killed collecting his gear.
He was hit suddenly from Lightning. That happend in sweden.

expressen / Sweden

cheers
Abbe