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National Weather Service - Lightning Safety
#32502 07/30/13 02:41 PM
Joined: Jun 2010
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wazzu Offline OP
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I found the National Weather Service Lightning Safety site today.

This may have been posted on an older thread, however I couldn't find it. Considering the weather this time of the year in the Sierra, it's a good resource regarding what to do if you are caught in storm with lightning.

Below are some tips from the web site:

Last Resort Outdoor Risk Reduction Tips
If you are caught outside with no safe shelter anywhere nearby the following actions may reduce your risk:

Immediately get off elevated areas such as hills, mountain ridges or peaks
Never lie flat on the ground
Never shelter under an isolated tree
Never use a cliff or rocky overhang for shelter
Immediately get out and away from ponds, lakes and other bodies of water
Stay away from objects that conduct electricity (barbed wire fences, power lines, windmills, etc.)

And another tip I found:
"If that's not possible to get inside, squat low to the ground on the balls of your feet, making yourself the smallest target possible and minimize contact with the ground. Then, as soon as possible, get out of the area."

Re: National Weather Service - Lightning Safety
wazzu #32551 08/01/13 07:32 PM
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Luckily the numbers of documented lightening deaths indicate the risk from dying by lightening is quite reasonable relative to other risks. The data indicates somewhere around 1 in 50 million per year in California.

Personally, I really enjoy a loud booming afternoon Sierra thunderstorm while semi-napping in a tarptent lying flat on the ground on an air mattress. I can't imagine following all these other rules unless a tree nearby just got hit.

If your are in a life threatening, lightening striking around you, I'm gonna die situation, another tip is to keep your feet together (preferably on an air mattress). Believe it or not, a separation between your feet can create a large voltage potential as the current moves through the ground beneath you. It might drop from 100,000 volts to 99,000 between your feet if the bolt hit the tree next to you. That would create a voltage potential of 1,000 volts between your two feet and a large current through your body. If your two feet are touching, the voltage between your feet would be nearly zero. Of course there are other phenomena involving your tent poles, hiking poles, etc. The bottom line for me is... if this my time, whatta ya gonna do. Make good choices, enjoy the show, and God bless you if that's the way it ends.

As common sense would inform, turn back from that pass or peak if a lightening storm is moving in, and get out of the hot springs (which can be very disappointing).

So far I've only been hit 12 times (just kidding).

Last edited by SierraNevada; 08/01/13 08:05 PM.

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