What to do in a thunderstorm?!!

[XmisterIS]

I have ridden in thunder and lightning before, but today, the clouds were low enough that the lightning was striking the ground!


I rode home on my shopping bike at a speed that Lance Armstrong would be proud of ...

 

[nich]

I have ridden in thunder and lightning before, but today, the clouds were low enough that the lightning was striking the ground!


I rode home on my shopping bike at a speed that Lance Armstrong would be proud of ...

i'll let you know later when I find out

 

[coffeejo]

Sounds like a hair-raising experience.

 

[Keith Oates]

I'm not sure what you should do but sheltering under a tree is an option to avoid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[BrumJim]

Cycling fast through a thunderstorm results in you having more chance of being struck by lightning:

If you move a metal object through a magnetic field, then if creates a potential, and therefore current flows. It is the principal that all generators work on.

An electrical charge causes a magnetic field around it - see electromagnets.

So, with the air ready for an electrical storm and all charged up, there is a magnetic field all around us. Passing a large metal item (say a bike frame) through this will cause it to get charged. The quicker the movement, the larger the charge. One end of the bike will be more negative, and one more positive. This will increase the potential from the charged clouds at one end, and a bigger potential across the same distance will mean that a discharge is more likely. Hence if lightning strikes, it will hit the bike, rather than the lesser charged surroundings.

Only two ways round this. One is to cycle slowly. The other is to get a carbon bike that will not generate a potential when moving through a magnetic field. Cycling slowly is clearly not an option, as you are getting cold and wet.

And that is the excuse that I am giving my wife this evening. Hopefully she won't see the holes in the physics.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

ride like you stole it, and pray to whatever gods you believe in that what they told you about the insulating properties of rubber (tyres) is true.

once got caught up on Plynlimon in a storm. No trees up there so I was the tallest thing for miles around. terrified. After a couple of CGI special effect like strikes I threw the bike on the floor, ran a good distance away from it and hit the deck and lay face down with hands over my head/ears whilst the hail and then the rain lashed down on me.

 

[chillyuk]

BrumJims explanation is most impressive.
Isn't education wonderful!

 

[WychwoodTrev]

I have ridden in thunder and lightning before, but today, the clouds were low enough that the lightning was striking the ground!


I rode home on my shopping bike at a speed that Lance Armstrong would be proud of ...

Where are I am roofing in Richmond at the mo well had to stop work due to lightening

 

[Jimmy Doug]

Hi,

I have never actually had to use these techniques, but I've done quite a lot of research on this as I'm often in areas where lightning could be a danger. This is what I've heard:

• Lightning always looks for the fastest way to reach the ground, so make sure you're not the tallest thing around, or you're not near the tallest thing around. For example, if you're in a very flat, featureless area or on the top of a hill you may yourself become a target; if you are looking for shelter underneath an isolated tree, you are in danger (lightening striking the tree). However, you can seek shelter in a forest, just try to keep a safe distance from the taller trees.
• You mustn't be lying down if you notice that lightening is coming towards your position. Instead, squat down onto the tips of your feet with your heels touching each other (not the most comfortable of positions!) - and don't touch the floor with your hands. Lightening can actually travel along the floor. This position will ensure that any electricitly will not pass through your heart (which would be the case if you were lying down). Some people suggest standing on roll mats etc to provide extra insulation, but I don't know if, considering the amount of electricity we're talking about here, this would really be effective.
• Caves do not provide safe shelter for the same reason: the electricity can still pass through the ground.
• If you're in a group, separate out. That way, if one person is hit, the others should be safe-(ish)
• Keep away from lakes and the sea.
• If you can get into a car, get into it! If lightening strikes, so long as the car isn't convertible and all the windows are up, it'll become a Faraday cage and protect you.
• Some people say that you should keep away from metal - which means your bike!
• Don't forget to protect your ears! Bust eardrums are a real possibility. I don't know how much protection they provide, but I always take good quality ear plugs when I'm out touring.
• Flash flooding is probably a bigger risk than the lightning, so be alert as to where they may happen

Hope that helps!

 

[Glow worm]

Big storm here earlier - it knocked out the power for an hour or so. I went for a quick walk down my street and there was a fella on top of a neighbour's roof, putting up a new TV arial !

 

[fossyant]

It's actually very nice up in Manchester - sunny, slight breeze. No storms forecast.

 

[Red Light]

Hi,

I have never actually had to use these techniques, but I've done quite a lot of research on this as I'm often in areas where lightning could be a danger. This is what I've heard:

• Lightning always looks for the fastest way to reach the ground, so make sure you're not the tallest thing around, or you're not near the tallest thing around. For example, if you're in a very flat, featureless area or on the top of a hill you may yourself become a target; if you are looking for shelter underneath an isolated tree, you are in danger (lightening striking the tree). However, you can seek shelter in a forest, just try to keep a safe distance from the taller trees.
• You mustn't be lying down if you notice that lightening is coming towards your position. Instead, squat down onto the tips of your feet with your heels touching each other (not the most comfortable of positions!) - and don't touch the floor with your hands. Lightening can actually travel along the floor. This position will ensure that any electricitly will not pass through your heart (which would be the case if you were lying down). Some people suggest standing on roll mats etc to provide extra insulation, but I don't know if, considering the amount of electricity we're talking about here, this would really be effective.
• Caves do not provide safe shelter for the same reason: the electricity can still pass through the ground.
• If you're in a group, separate out. That way, if one person is hit, the others should be safe-(ish)
• Keep away from lakes and the sea.
• If you can get into a car, get into it! If lightening strikes, so long as the car isn't convertible and all the windows are up, it'll become a Faraday cage and protect you.
• Some people say that you should keep away from metal - which means your bike!
• Don't forget to protect your ears! Bust eardrums are a real possibility. I don't know how much protection they provide, but I always take good quality ear plugs when I'm out touring.
• Flash flooding is probably a bigger risk than the lightning, so be alert as to where they may happen

Hope that helps!

Generally right with the addition of clasp your hands over the top of your head with your elbows resting on your knees. You are trying to make sure that if you are hit, the lightning takes a path in your body away from your brain and heart and the idea of this is it goes straight down your arms into your legs and the ground rather than through your head and torso. Another option is to kneel on the ground with your bum in the air and your head down but not touching the ground.

The reason for keeping your feet together and not touching the ground with your hands is that if the lightning hits the ground in your vicinity it can create quite large voltage differences along the ground as the current in the strike spreads out. That could lead to you getting quite a large shock because your hands and feet, or even two feet are at different voltages. A former work colleague had the whole of two football teams taken out (knocked out, not killed) that way by a lightning strike near the pitch they were playing on.

Finally, as a correction, the safety in a car is not the Faraday Cage effect. That is concerned with electrostatics whereas lightning is a pulsed effect. In a car its what is known as the skin effect. Short pulse currents travel in the surface layers of a metal, not the bulk which means they flow through the outside layers of the metal bodywork, not the inside layers. A good idea not to touch any of the bodywork and check they are actually metal body panels - many these days are composite and won't help. Its explained a bit more here

 

[Beebo]

I hope this passes over London before I cycle home.

I guess in any large city you can hope that the lightning will hit the taller buildings and ignore the little cyclist. Is that about right?

 

[sheddy]

Went looking for dead cows onternet. The common theme seemed to be that they were either standing under a tree or next to a fence at the time

 

[BrumJim]

I hope this passes over London before I cycle home.

I guess in any large city you can hope that the lightning will hit the taller buildings and ignore the little cyclist. Is that about right?

Works in most cities, but in London, when lightning strikes, the big tall buildings that are owned or occupied by banks don't get hit, and it is the small man that suffers instead.