Chuck, I sent this yesterday and it bounced.
Understanding lightning helps one onderstand when he/she is at risk. We lose a few folks to lightning every year in Wyoming- more because they do the wrong thing rather than nothing at all. There are a lot of news reports on TCV to help people avoid getting struck. Lightning is an arc that's looking for the path of least resistance to ground. Thus, it looks for a conductor that offers less resistance than air. Points of polarity change rapidly within storm clouds, and so a discharge can happen anywhere and over long distances. So even if you think the lightning is a long way off, you still are at risk. I've seen lightning bolts strike horizontally many miles to a lightning rod on a transmission line because that was the path of least resistance. We get many strikes here in Wyoming right to the prairie ground, as there's nothing taller around than sage brush for miles and miles, and these strikes start lots of prairie fires. So if you were out on that prairie, you'd be the tallest thing, and probably get struck. I have a friend that told me when he gets caught out like that in a lightning storm, he stabs the butt of his rod into the dirt, sticking it straight up, and then walks away and lies low. He calls it his sacrificial rod. I drew a cartoon for a local paper about this subject- was funny, but serious also. SO if you can't avoid being out in a thunderstorm, find a place where you're the most confident that you are not the tallest thing or standing next to the tallest thing. A tree has resistance, but you have less resistance and if you are standing next to it, the arc can (and will) jump from the tree and finish through you. Like I said, it's looking to discharge through the path of least resistance, and trees and people have lots of water, which offers less resistance than air. Actually, we make great conductors. It's that bit of carbon resistance that creates the heat that gives us problems. Dr. Demento may have been born from a lightning strike, but we can't remember. If you are out on a lake and don't beat the storm home, well, that's why they say by all means beat the storm home. And your rod is definitely a conductor, so lay it as low as you can. Even though the arc may not pass directly through a person, close proximity can allow a portion of the arc to pass through, resulting in injury or worse. DonO
