Best option if caught in thunderstorm?

In aus.bicycle on Tue, 15 Aug 2006 19:26:50 +1000

beerwolf said:

This question occurred to me today, riding home (after the
thunderstorm had stopped). Suppose the thunder is uncomfortably
close, and you're not able to take cover.

Which of the following minimises the chances of being struck?
a) Dump the bike, get as far from it as possible.
b) Keep riding, hope the tyres insulate you from Mother Earth.
c) None of the above.

Are you often the tallest thing within 50 yards?

Zebee

Zebee Johnstone said:

In aus.bicycle on Tue, 15 Aug 2006 19:26:50 +1000

beerwolf said:

This question occurred to me today, riding home (after the
thunderstorm had stopped). Suppose the thunder is uncomfortably
close, and you're not able to take cover.

Which of the following minimises the chances of being struck?
a) Dump the bike, get as far from it as possible.
b) Keep riding, hope the tyres insulate you from Mother Earth.
c) None of the above.

Are you often the tallest thing within 50 yards?

Now and again. Not so much close to the city.
But some of the western bike paths (and freeway shoulders)
are pretty exposed. As are some of the Snowy Mountains
plateaux. There was one memorable occasion when we were
returning from a weekend MTB trip down the Cascades fire trail,
racing a thunderstorm coming up from Victoria. We made it back
to the car at Dead Horse Gap, with about 5 mins to spare.

--
beerwolf (remove numbers from email address)

beerwolf said:

This question occurred to me today, riding home (after the
thunderstorm had stopped).

hmm it was a different experience riding home through 6" deep puddles
of slush, I must admit.

As Lee Trevino says - carry a 1-iron with you and hold it above your head, because not even God can hit a 1 -iron. he he ??

In aus.bicycle on Tue, 15 Aug 2006 20:16:15 +1000

beerwolf said:

Now and again. Not so much close to the city.
But some of the western bike paths (and freeway shoulders)
are pretty exposed. As are some of the Snowy Mountains

There was a bod on an email list I was on who was hit by lightning
while riding his motorcycle.

He crashed the bike, but the lightning didn't seem to hurt him.

Zebee

I knew a god-botherer type who got struck by lightning, not once, but
twice. He couldn't work out whether to keep believing, or quit. That
naughty god, such a [censored]-stirrer.

Donga

beerwolf said:

This question occurred to me today, riding home (after the
thunderstorm had stopped). Suppose the thunder is uncomfortably
close, and you're not able to take cover.

Which of the following minimises the chances of being struck?
a) Dump the bike, get as far from it as possible.
b) Keep riding, hope the tyres insulate you from Mother Earth.
c) None of the above.

My best guess would be b). But I stopped studying physics
after HSC (long time ago), so it's only a guess. Opinions??

--
beerwolf (remove numbers from email address)

The question is why, in the at least 1 hours warning of today's storm, you wouldn't be able to find a cafe to wait it out in!

Unless you are in the mountains, storms don't appear out of nowhere.

Cheers

Geoff

On 2006-08-15, beerwolf (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

Zebee Johnstone said:

In aus.bicycle on Tue, 15 Aug 2006 19:26:50 +1000

beerwolf said:

This question occurred to me today, riding home (after the
thunderstorm had stopped). Suppose the thunder is uncomfortably
close, and you're not able to take cover.

Which of the following minimises the chances of being struck?
a) Dump the bike, get as far from it as possible.

Possibly. Dunno.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

b) Keep riding, hope the tyres insulate you from Mother Earth.

Not b) -- if the lightning didn't notice the kilometres of air between
the clouds and you, it's not going to notice the millimetres of rubber
between you, the bicycle frame, and the not-highly-conductive ground.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

c) None of the above.

Are you often the tallest thing within 50 yards?

Now and again. Not so much close to the city.
But some of the western bike paths (and freeway shoulders)

No overhead lights? They conduct real well 🙂

Quoted message said:

are pretty exposed. As are some of the Snowy Mountains
plateaux.

No overhead lights there 🙂

Quoted message said:

There was one memorable occasion when we were
returning from a weekend MTB trip down the Cascades fire trail,
racing a thunderstorm coming up from Victoria. We made it back
to the car at Dead Horse Gap, with about 5 mins to spare.

If riding, and you feel your hair stand up on your neck, drop the bike
*now*. Crouch into the fetal position, probably on your side -- so
that the highest point of you is the lowest you can be, while still
taking up as little space on the ground. If you spread out, lying
down, then that gives you more chance of current going through your
heart because of the electric field emanating from the strike, and the
leaders that spread out along the ground.

--
TimC
"You can't trust any bugger further than you can
throw him, and there's nothing you can do about it,
so let's have a drink." -- Terry Pratchett

TimC wrote:
.... snip

Quoted message said:

If riding, and you feel your hair stand up on your neck, drop the bike
*now*. Crouch into the fetal position, probably on your side -- so
that the highest point of you is the lowest you can be, while still
taking up as little space on the ground. If you spread out, lying
down, then that gives you more chance of current going through your
heart because of the electric field emanating from the strike, and the
leaders that spread out along the ground.

*shiver*
I may have had 2 lucky escapes (neither while cycling).
The scariest - we were eating lunch on top of Mt Gingera, western
border of ACT. I heard a rumble of thunder (well distant, I thought),
and turned to suggest to my wife that we should leave. At that time
she had long hair - and it was sticking out from her head as if she
was the Sun God. Like she was hooked up to a van de Graaf (sp?)
generator. We got the hell out of there, and within a couple of minutes
we had to contend, not just with a thunderstorm, but serious hail.
I've got a lot of respect for Huey and his weapons.

--
beerwolf (remove numbers from email address)

TimC said:

If riding, and you feel your hair stand up on your neck, drop the bike
*now*. Crouch into the fetal position, probably on your side -- so
that the highest point of you is the lowest you can be, while still
taking up as little space on the ground. If you spread out, lying
down, then that gives you more chance of current going through your
heart because of the electric field emanating from the strike, and the
leaders that spread out along the ground.

<ebay>
Highly informative post. Will read authors posts again. A+++
</ebay>

geoffs said:

The question is why, in the at least 1 hours warning of today's storm,
you wouldn't be able to find a cafe to wait it out in!

Unless you are in the mountains, storms don't appear out of nowhere.

I saw the worst of it from my office window. The thought of being out
in the mountains, in a storm like that, is what prompted my question.
I was so glad it didn't happen while I was out with my MTB near
the end of the Narrowneck plateau.

--
beerwolf (remove numbers from email address)

geoffs said:

The question is why, in the at least 1 hours warning of today's storm, you
wouldn't be able to find a cafe to wait it out in!

I had that experience today. Weather fine all day, until time to ride home
and get changed into $slightly_longer_ride clothes. Then when I got to Uni
the weather cleared up. sigh.

--
Dave Hughes | [email hidden]
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of
the precipitate - Steven Wright

TimC said:

If riding, and you feel your hair stand up on your neck, drop the bike
*now*. Crouch into the fetal position, probably on your side -- so
that the highest point of you is the lowest you can be, while still
taking up as little space on the ground. If you spread out, lying
down, then that gives you more chance of current going through your
heart because of the electric field emanating from the strike, and the
leaders that spread out along the ground.

Had that occur while riding around the Kyneton area years ago. A intense storm had been brewing up but no rain had fallen. I felt hairs prickling up on my legs, arms and neck. Bike got chucked in one direction, bag in another, plus watch etc, then I jumped a wire fence on the road side and sat in the paddock away from any trees. Within a minute or so lightening was crashing everywhere. Or it seemed like it! I just sat there for about 10 mins till the storm cell cleared off and retrieved all my stuff.

On 2006-08-15, beerwolf (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

TimC wrote:
... snip

Quoted message said:

If riding, and you feel your hair stand up on your neck, drop the bike
*now*. Crouch into the fetal position, probably on your side -- so
that the highest point of you is the lowest you can be, while still
taking up as little space on the ground. If you spread out, lying
down, then that gives you more chance of current going through your
heart because of the electric field emanating from the strike, and the
leaders that spread out along the ground.

*shiver*
I may have had 2 lucky escapes (neither while cycling).
The scariest - we were eating lunch on top of Mt Gingera, western
border of ACT. I heard a rumble of thunder (well distant, I thought),
and turned to suggest to my wife that we should leave. At that time
she had long hair - and it was sticking out from her head as if she
was the Sun God. Like she was hooked up to a van de Graaf (sp?)
generator. We got the hell out of there, and within a couple of minutes
we had to contend, not just with a thunderstorm, but serious hail.
I've got a lot of respect for Huey and his weapons.

Famous photograph
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/severewx/safety.php
('bout half way down)

I don't know how accurate that caption is though; the story I heard
was that they left immediately after that, and looked back just as
lightning struck the area. Course, that could have been the happy
ending that was written into the physics text that had that
photograph. Alas, I can't check my copy of Halliday, Resnick &
Walker, because it is currently in a box somewhere under more boxes,
possibly with a cat.

Oh, and that webbage reckons stay away from your motorbike. So I
assume it's wise to stay away from your nonmotorbike too, unless it's
made of plastic (actually, carbon plastic would be conductive too,
wouldn't it?)

--
TimC

Quoted message said:

As you know, Linus took the word the penguins kept saying over and
over again, rot13'ed it, and used that as the name of his OS.

So, who's going to record this .au file:
"Hello, my name is Yvahf Gbeinyqf, and I pronounce yvahk, yvahk."
-- Anthony de Boer && Michel Buijsman in ASR

beerwolf said:

This question occurred to me today, riding home (after the
thunderstorm had stopped). Suppose the thunder is
uncomfortably close, and you're not able to take cover.

Which of the following minimises the chances of being struck?
a) Dump the bike, get as far from it as possible.
b) Keep riding, hope the tyres insulate you from Mother Earth.
c) None of the above.

My best guess would be b). But I stopped studying physics
after HSC (long time ago), so it's only a guess. Opinions??

A couple of other informative sites, well worth a read:

http://www.struckbylightning.org/index.htm

http://www.nols.edu/resources/research/pdfs/lightningsafetycavers.pdf

John

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden]
says...

Quoted message said:

beerwolf said:

This question occurred to me today, riding home (after the
thunderstorm had stopped). Suppose the thunder is
uncomfortably close, and you're not able to take cover.

Which of the following minimises the chances of being struck?
a) Dump the bike, get as far from it as possible.
b) Keep riding, hope the tyres insulate you from Mother Earth.
c) None of the above.

My best guess would be b). But I stopped studying physics
after HSC (long time ago), so it's only a guess. Opinions??

A couple of other informative sites, well worth a read:

http://www.struckbylightning.org/index.htm

http://www.nols.edu/resources/research/pdfs/lightningsafetycavers.pdf

John

After witnessing a dump truck hitting 220kV overhead lines, I would not
place any faith in your puny bike tyres insulating you from Mother
Earth.

The flashover blew out all tyres on the truck, along with the local
power grid!

Ray

beerwolf said:

This question occurred to me today, riding home (after the
thunderstorm had stopped). Suppose the thunder is uncomfortably
close, and you're not able to take cover.

Which of the following minimises the chances of being struck?
a) Dump the bike, get as far from it as possible.
b) Keep riding, hope the tyres insulate you from Mother Earth.
c) None of the above.

My best guess would be b). But I stopped studying physics
after HSC (long time ago), so it's only a guess. Opinions??

Wet rubber is a conductor.

In article <[email hidden]>,

cfsmtb said:

I felt hairs prickling up on my legs, arms and neck.

So I guess the moral of the story is that cyclists in storm-prone areas
shouldn't shave their legs...

--
Shane Stanley

TimC said:

On 2006-08-15, beerwolf (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

TimC wrote:
... snip

Quoted message said:

If riding, and you feel your hair stand up on your neck, drop the bike
*now*. Crouch into the fetal position, probably on your side -- so
that the highest point of you is the lowest you can be, while still
taking up as little space on the ground. If you spread out, lying
down, then that gives you more chance of current going through your
heart because of the electric field emanating from the strike, and the
leaders that spread out along the ground.

*shiver*
I may have had 2 lucky escapes (neither while cycling).
The scariest - we were eating lunch on top of Mt Gingera, western
border of ACT. I heard a rumble of thunder (well distant, I thought),
and turned to suggest to my wife that we should leave. At that time
she had long hair - and it was sticking out from her head as if she
was the Sun God. Like she was hooked up to a van de Graaf (sp?)
generator. We got the hell out of there, and within a couple of minutes
we had to contend, not just with a thunderstorm, but serious hail.
I've got a lot of respect for Huey and his weapons.

Famous photograph
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/severewx/safety.php
('bout half way down)

I don't know how accurate that caption is though; the story I heard
was that they left immediately after that, and looked back just as
lightning struck the area. Course, that could have been the happy
ending that was written into the physics text that had that
photograph. Alas, I can't check my copy of Halliday, Resnick &
Walker, because it is currently in a box somewhere under more boxes,
possibly with a cat.

Don't store your book away for too long. A friend of mine stored his in
a shed while he went for a trip to England and the white ants attacked
it. It's still usable though. Also it has it's own website, I love the
experiment where the guy dips his hand into molten lead to demonstrate
the Leidenfrost Effect. You can find it here.
http://bcs.wiley.com/he-bcs/Books?action=resource&bcsId=1074&itemId=0471320005&resourceId=165

Third essay down.

Friday

Quoted message said:

Oh, and that webbage reckons stay away from your motorbike. So I
assume it's wise to stay away from your nonmotorbike too, unless it's
made of plastic (actually, carbon plastic would be conductive too,
wouldn't it?)