Thunder & lightning: what to do when outside

[mbatham]

I seem to remember from Hillwalking training that th best advice is to get lower down the hill. It was said the best place to be was at a place the same horizontal distance from the hill as it is high. Try to discard metal bits and sit on your roll mat, ontop of your ruck sack. Avoit vallies, caves and overhangs and cross your fingers....

 

[Squidders]

"If you are caught on a golf course during a storm and are afraid of lightning, hold up a 1-iron. Not even God can hit a 1-iron." - Lee Treveno
Always thought that was funny.

Joe

 

[Goose]

what to do in a thunder and lightning storm?

easy, dance naked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So that is what you were up to, theres me thinking it was a bear!

 

[Biddlesby]

I was watching a documentary on lightning. Apparently the phenomenon whereby lighting travels through the film of sweat around your body that havingagiraffe mentioned is the common way people are struck by lightning. Then, you escape with burns (and damaged long term mental activity) rather than the lightning travelling through your body, and your heart, stopping it.

Here's a picture to illustrate that:

Also, according to BBC four, lightning and thunder emits radiation: x-rays and gamma .

 

[Beakytzw]

Rubber soled boots, supposed to insulate you from the ground

 

[lardbloke]

Did anyone watch the programme on telly regarding super lightining a while back. As I recall (wrogly usually), the lightning first shot out in reverse into the edge of the earths atmosphere (with the lightining being many miles wide) before returning a bolt back through the clouds to the earth. The resulting strike was termed super lightning and was incredibly more powerful than standard lightning. The prog showed the lightning being filmed by the space station and various weather observers and was awsome. If you got hit by this, I should imagine there would be very little left of you. So if you happen to see lightning moving up clouds, now is the time to pray (just lay down on the ground with your legs and arms together) and weather the storm.

 

[Pappa]

I don't do it any more, as I no longer have fire clubs; but my favourite thing to do in a good storm was to take a bottle of paraffin and a set of fire clubs to the park for a juggle. It was great fun, and the rain makes an audiable fizz when it hits the hot clubs too.

Pappa

 

[JayKay]

Hi there,

Found this on the internet. Might be usefull:

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

Also a very nice picture on spaceweather.com:

http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2005/18aug05/young1.jpg

Greetings,

Jeroen