i would be much more concerned about being hit in a tent. you'd have no chance of getting out of the tent in time and if it was hot enough to catch the sil on fire it would instantly vacuum pack you inside it. dead. not to mention the aluminum poles that are touching the ground on 4 corners around you trying to conduct electricity right into your tent
at least that's what i tell myself when i'm out hanging
I don't know about lightning, but I do agree that you've always got to check for those "widowmakers" in the treeswhether you're in a tent or hanging!
The last time I was in a really bad lightning storm, I was in my tarp/tent (and it was leaking but that's another story) I could see pretty good even though it was the middle of the night, lightning does light up the night! Strikes were hitting all around me, I'm surrounded by trees and I can feel that the hair on my head is trying to stand up!! I'm to scared to move and I figured that since I'm on top of my Exped 9 mat that I was safer to just stay put. I've always been told to get off of the ground, even if you have to get on top of your backpack, then you squat down on that. I figured that hanging was safer than being in a tent that has water satuated ground all around it, unless the tree you're attached to, gets hit. Another thing, no matter if tent, hammock, just a tarp, or even no shelter, always, always look up and see whats above you. Gravity works, especially during a storm and sometimes right out of the blue too. If you've got a choice with your tree selection, choose healthy, no dead limbs especially above you, and not the tallest trees.
One misconception about lightning is that it's attracted to metal. Metal is simply a low resistance path. Lightning is at such a high voltage that it can flow thru even high resistance items...air, wood, etc.
Lightning tends to hit things that stand out from their surroundings, tall tree, person in a field, sailboat mast. There is a higher charge density around something that's relatively pointy than flatter items. That charge density is what attracts the lightning, not metal.
Similarly, people tend to believe that electrical insulators will protect them. Like wearing rubber soled boots. Lightning is working on such a large scale that the little bit of insulation in the boots is irrelevant.
I'm over simplifying and I'm sure someone more technical could explain it better.
Knotty
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It is my understanding that the vast majority of injuries that occur with lightning are due to feeders from the strike rather than a direct hit. Most feeders travel through the ground and often follow the contour of the ground much as water would if it were flowing on top of the ground.
Camping in low depressions therefore, while placing you lower, may result in more risk. I know a number of people who have been struck while in tents with various results. I only know of one person hit directly, he was on my soccer team in college, during practice, and it literally blew grey matter out the back of his skull. It was not pretty and we mourned that loss for a long time.
I am very leary of lightning, but I do believe my odds are better hanging, and if I expect a storm I take a strategy of hanging in a grove of similarly sized trees so none stands out, creating more randomness in the potential strike.
I believe the ground is less safe and even if I were on the ground, particularly in a tent, I would seek a grove of similarly sized trees to reduce the exposure of the tent as the highest point. I have been running rivers for more than 30 years and lightning is definitely the scariest of all the things I have encountered. No matter what you are on while on the ground, I believe the risk is higher than being suspended. Current flows like a river through the ground.
A direct hit, doesn't much matter, yet most injuries are not a result of that.
Then we could all do what Lee Trevino did during a golf tournament in lightning as he held up his 1 iron, and declared, "Even God can't hit a 1 iron."
I am heading out next week for a five day trip on the Black River in Wisconsin where my buddies will be in tents on large sand bars. If it storms I know I will feel safer in the woods hanging. I will check for those widow makers overhead for sure.
“Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
And what Knotty said, lightning really doesn't follow the rules.Originally Posted by canoebie
I do not like lightning, and I much prefer being off the ground.
Lightning struck my house a few years back about 0400. We never did figure out where it struck and made entry. The 1st assumption was that it struck the chimney/fireplace insert, but that proved incorrect most likely, as there was zero chimney damage.
Where ever it came in, it was wild. Big bomb going off sound. I woke up and asked my wife "did it hit us?". Then as I rolled over already on my way back to sleep, I noticed a flickering light from the living room. I got up and found flames shooting 5 feet or more out from the fireplace, a big ball of fire. Imagine the adrenaline rush from deep sleep to full on emergency. As it turned out, where ever it is that the lightning first struck, at some point it went into the fire place, ruptured the gas line and started a big fire, then traveled along the power cord to the power out let, exploded that out let and a wooden magazine rack beside it, then the now free from the outlet cord hit the wood floor, exploded about a square foot of it and then burned a 2" diameter hole through the concrete floor beneath the wood floor, as the lightning finally found way to ground. Right next to my recliner.
TVs, computers, security systems- and other items plugged in through out the house were burned out. Other plugged in items appeared untouched.
I spent a lot of time trying to figure out which way that lightning traveled or entered based on normal electrical path of least resistance theories. I never did figure it out. It all remained a scary mystery.
Lightning is spectacular and terrifying.
Oh, here is another lightning experience which shows the seeming irrationality of it all. Lightning is supposed to be way more likely to strike the high places first, but that still won't always work out, even if the odds are in your favor.
Picture a fairly narrow mountain valley at about 10,000 feet or so, surrounded by peaks at 11000 to nearly 13000 feet. That's where you don't want to be in a lightning storm, right, on top of those peaks? Now picture trees on the lower slopes of those peaks, coming down into the valley. The center of the valley is relatively tree free, just a few here and there, with the taller trees and dense woods a few hundred yards right or left. So my friend and I are hiking down that valley 20 years ago, as a thunder storm approaches, and we can see the trail going a mile or more down the valley in the direction of the approaching storm. So what do you suppose we see? Lightning hitting the peaks or striking the trees? Nope, we watch in dismay as a big bolt of lightning hits the ground about in the middle of the trail! The lowest point we can see near us.
So, we go off the trail into the woods, and sit on our pads. Next thing we know sleet( or hail ) is pouring on us, waiting for the storm to go by, hoping we are in the right spot. We were not near the tallest trees, but that was little comfort after what we had just witnessed.
About 1988 we did a great circle hike in the Wind River Range which was truely great.
A violent thunder storm gathered as we approached then hit at Jackass Pass. Hail, nearby Lightning, roaring thunder and wind -- the full meal deal at exposed elevation.
We dropped down a little and spouse and a friend got inside while I put the fly on the tent ... told them to sit on foam pads which was a good call cuz almost immediately we were hit (according to spousette) or nearly so (according to me). They jumped into the air inside while I startled and noticed the ozone and buzz.
In 30 minutes it passed and cleared and soon we saw the fantastic Circ of the Towers.
Where was I?
Oh yes. I'd rather be in a low spot in the open with a view rather than the woods which is prolly not the right call ... I love to watch and be in BIG storms.
"There's no accounting for other people's taste in love, fiction and huntin' dogs." ---Mark Twain
Whoo buddy! My previous post about seeing the lightning strike about the low point of the trail was just over the next pass from where you were! Just over Texas Pass as you head out from the Cirque of the Towers/Lonesome Lake in the opposite direction from Jack *** Pass. And I think it was the SAME year! I bet you ended up on the same trail on your circle hike?
Well, that sounds beyond down right scary! How close do you think it hit?We dropped down a little and spouse and a friend got inside while I put the fly on the tent ... told them to sit on foam pads which was a good call cuz almost immediately we were hit (according to spousette) or nearly so (according to me). They jumped into the air inside while I startled and noticed the ozone and buzz.
In 30 minutes it passed and cleared and soon we saw the fantastic Circ of the Towers.
Where was I?
Oh yes. I'd rather be in a low spot in the open with a view rather than the woods which is prolly not the right call ... I love to watch and be in BIG storms.
I'm with you about preferring to be in a low spot and not in the trees as far as putting the odds in your favor. OTOH, we could see the lightning "walking" it's way up the trail and Washakie creek towards us, and it just didn't seem prudent to stay on the trail, as opposed to the trees which were all about the same height. All the lightning rods out of a whole bunch of lightning rods each seemed to have about the same odds of being struck. But out on the open trail I felt like the lightning rod.
And I confess I have done this before when trapped in the open in severe lightning storms. For example, I have run from the open trail in Colorado into the dense Aspen forest, where I am in the midst of hundreds (thousands?) of trees, 99% of which appear to have not been struck by lightning over the years. Of course, I am hoping if the lightning does strike one of the (all about equal height) Aspens( lightning rods), it hits one a few hundred feet or yards away from me.
Do y'all think this is the wrong approach? After all, this is also where we are hanging when the lightning storms come through at night. All I know is, lightning often does some crazy and scary stuff! BTW, our best GUESS on how the lightning came in our house was that it came in on the (under ground) TV cable, since those lines were burned out where they came into the house, and two of the TVs were fried. But IF that is correct, that would mean the lightning struck the ground in the back yard, instead of the chimney or trees. I dunno!
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