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Lightning

8K views 38 replies 25 participants last post by  BilloutWest 
#1 ·
What are the general thoughts about lightning on the river? Or actual facts. Ha! Is it better to stay on the river? Pull over and get on land away from the boat? I have a lot of experience with lighting in high alpine situations but have never really heard of any rules for the river. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
 
#37 ·
I do know that we are better conductors than trees and that lightning does not like heavy rain and tends to strike around the edges much more. ALso you can get struck as far away as 2 miles from a storm.

Squatting in a fetal position is the best and not hard when your scaried shitless.
 
#38 ·
FYI

Lightning can travel at least 10 miles from its source. Making yourself 2-3 feet shorter won't help much, and oh yeah, it is estimated that only about 3-5% of lightning injuries and deaths are the result of direct strikes. Just saying. There are really only three factors that affect where lightning will strike: Height of an object, isolation of an object from taller objects, and Pointiness. Metal objects do not attract lightning but are great conductors. (Auerbach, Wilderness Medicine).

The thing is, most metal objects are tall, isolated from other tall objects, and pointy. Look at a lightning rod. It's pointy, isolated, and the tallest thing around. It is made of metal so that once it is hit it will conduct the current through wires on the outside of the structure and into the ground (good example of this is the shack/cabin at Pitkin Lake outside of Vail...take a look if you are up there and you'll see how it works). Pipes and electrical wires in buildings do the exact same thing, which is why a building with grounded plumbing or electric is a safer place to be. The metal of a car also conducts the current around the outside of a vehicle and usually will jump from the bumper to the ground rather than try to travel through the tires to the ground (poor conductor).

Back to the river. So a boat on a lake with you in it, does attract lightning if it strikes nearby (isolation of object from taller object, but perhaps not on a river if it is not very wide). The rubber boat won't do much as it is probably wet seeing as you are in a thunderstorm. Still, lowest point, not in isolation as long as it is not a huge river, and not pointy. So all good so far; however, lightning is defined by its unpredictability and if you get hit, or your party is running tight and all gets hit, what happens. Blown off boat into water, knocked unconscious and fall into the water, etc.., etc.... So that is the risk you have to assume if you stay in the boat on the water. Obviously, there is also risk in stopping and spreading out on the shore ( in order to limit mass casualty in case of a strike) as you will most likely be closer to a taller object (bad) and might be closer to, or standing on, wet sand (also bad).

As with all endeavors, it is up to the individual to accept the level of risk and mitigate when possible. We could all stay home with triple locked doors (when it roars go indoors), but what fun would that be.
 
#39 ·
When a stepped leader initiates it is not attracted to a piece of metal on the ground. Until it gets close.
Lightning progresses in segments. Within each segment it takes the path of least resistance which will commonly include metal objects.
The problem with saying that lightning isn't attracted to metal is that people will take that to mean they don't have to move away from metal to be safer.

Here is a for instance.
I was on a converted lookout tower in La Grande Oregon.
We were young and cocky and should have gotten away from all the metal on that 45 high tower sooner.
It was made of wooden beams but had substantial metal guide wires going angled down to Concrete piers. It had well built metal pipe hand rails. It was everything that Lightning wants.

We had decided to leave too late.
Lightning hit the tower when most of us were half way down.
The main bolt hit and went down the wires. None of us saw this but its obvious that is what happened.
Jack got hit by lightning in our stories but it really was peripheral. It wasn't the main bolt.
The energy that got Jack came down a metal railing, jumped to his metal reserve handle, continued down one leg and jumped to another hand rail section below.
Jack was our electrical expert. He had shocked himself at home with both 120 and 240. He described the shock he got as 'about a 120'. As mentioned in the prior post the majority of human/animal lightning strikes are not the main discharge.

The flash and instantaneous boom we experienced were urine inducing.

Get away from metal.
I'm familiar with that Morgan Lake Fatality where lightning jumped from a Pondo over one kid and to another who just happened to have a metal brace in his leg.
I jumped fires for 20 years, mostly lightning, listened to others stories and worked on fires from helicopters and the ground for another 20.

Lightning will consistently use metal for least resistance. Like I said a 4 inch x 4 inch metal tag on a tree. The fences. A choker cable.
If its a lightning rod you probably aren't in that much danger. Grounded metal means you're not going to get the main discharge. Probably.

Being in a car doesn't mean you aren't insulated by the tires, You are protected by the cage effect. (Faraday cage). If you have the windows up. Picture a car going down the road where the parents were in the front seats with the windows down. Lightning went through the front and killed them. The two kids in the back survived even the wreck.

The worst place you could be is next to a car.
Lightning will hit that car if its in one of the segments.
The bolt will jump to the ground. Hey, going through the air is something it does when there isn't a better conductor.
If a human is standing next to the car. They'll get selected as we are better conductors than the air.

Take that thought to standing next to an inflatable boat with a metal frame. The boat material offers no insulation protection. Forget that. You could easily be part of the circuit.

If you are going to park it, get away and stay away from your boat and other metal.
 
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