Cyclist killed by lightning.

I wonder if he was killed while he was on the bike. I always
thought that if you were ON the bike, lightning wouldn't
kill you b/c of the tyres- they are made of rubber.

I once cycled through a fierce storm. This was in Uruguay,
years ago. It had been a really hot day and we all knew that
rain was coming. I was in the beach and when it started
clouding over, I stayed anyway. The clouds were an amazing
spectacle; purple and grey colours. Also very thick clouds,
and the wind had picked up, so it looked like they were
dancing across the sky to some valtz. Anyway, I thought it
was time to head back home when the first drops fell. Got on
my bike, and five minutes later, the floodgates opened! And
the worst thunder and lightning storm I've ever seen! Well,
it would seem the worst when you have a courtain of water in
front of you, can bearely see anything, you're getting
soaked to the bone, the thunder gets scary and you're
cycling on gravel roads!!!

My road bike was covered in mud and gravel, gears (just 3)
were ruined because of the gravel.

--
Vivian
-------
"We learned more from a three minute record than we ever learned in school".
No Surrender

"Simon Mason" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I was out cycling from work yesterday and could hear there was lightning
about in my earphones on AM radio by the static crashes. I couldn't

actually

Quoted message said:

hear any thunder or I would have taken cover myself.

news.bbc.co.uk3762613.stmOpen ↗

Quoted message said:

I wonder if he was killed while he was on the bike. I
always thought that if you were ON the bike, lightning
wouldn't kill you b/c of the tyres-

they

Quoted message said:

are made of rubber.

A major misconception if ever there was one. If the
lightning bolt can bridge the gap between you and the
clouds, a few centimetres of rubber will not be much of an
impediment to the bolt being conducted through you to earth.
You'd be safe inside a car - not because of the tyres being
'taller' I hasten to add.

Your best bet is to find shelter.

Quoted message said:

I once cycled through a fierce storm. This was in
Uruguay, years ago. It had been a really hot day and we
all knew that rain was coming. I was in the beach and
when it started clouding over, I stayed anyway. The
clouds were an amazing spectacle; purple and grey
colours. Also very thick

clouds,

Quoted message said:

and the wind had picked up, so it looked like they were
dancing across the sky to some valtz. Anyway, I thought it
was time to head back home when

the

Quoted message said:

first drops fell. Got on my bike, and five minutes later,
the floodgates opened! And the worst thunder and lightning
storm I've ever seen!

I witnessed something similar at Robin Hood's Bay in North
Yorkshire where I had organised a school trip. Alarm bells
started to ring for me when the kids' hair started to stand
on end and the air on my arms started to prickle. The kids
were most miffed when they were dragged to the mini bus as
they thought that the 'hair tricks' were 'very cool'. They
soon shut up when the thunder and lighning started....they'd
never seen such well defined bolts of lightning or heard
such loud claps of thunder or seen so much rain. A scary ten
to fifteen minutes I can tell you!

"vernon levy" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I wonder if he was killed while he was on the bike. I
always thought

that

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

if you were ON the bike, lightning wouldn't kill you b/c
of the tyres-

they

Quoted message said:

are made of rubber.

A major misconception if ever there was one. If the
lightning bolt can bridge the gap between you and the
clouds, a few centimetres of rubber

will

Quoted message said:

not be much of an impediment to the bolt being conducted
through you to earth. You'd be safe inside a car - not
because of the tyres being

'taller'

Quoted message said:

I hasten to add.

Your best bet is to find shelter.

But not under a tree. The electricity might find it easier
to get to earth by arcing through the air onto you rather
than travelling down the wood.

I published a page with some safety advice recently: mountaineering-mountaineering-Open ↗
scotland.org.uk/safety/lightning.html

--
Duncan Gray

homepage - www.duncolm.co.uk also www.mountaineering-
scotland.org.uk The Mountaineering Council of Scotland

Vivian said:

I wonder if he was killed while he was on the bike. I
always thought that if you were ON the bike,
lightning wouldn't kill you b/c of the tyres- they
are made of rubber.

Ah, but why would the lightning bolt want to travel
through the tyres? It's already traveled several hundred
feet through the air to reach you. I'm sure it would
manage to travel a couple more inches through the air
around your tyres. Or possibly the short distance from
your bottom bracket. Take cover from lightning storms when
cycling in the open.
--
Cheerful Pedalling John Mallard

vernon levy said:

I witnessed something similar at Robin Hood's Bay in North
Yorkshire where I had organised a school trip. Alarm bells
started to ring for me when the kids' hair started to
stand on end and the air on my arms started to prickle.

That's the start of becoming a human lightning conductor -
it doesn't just "come down from the sky", it "meets in the
middle" when the best route to bridge the potential gap is
discovered. Different paths take different energies to jump,
so when the lowest energy gap is discovered, then you get
the route for the spark(s) to follow.

Check out science.howstuffworks.comlightning4.htmOpen ↗
and science.howstuffworks.comlightning5.htmOpen ↗ for the
best non-physicists explanation I've ever seen.

I looked this stuff up while I was a student... one evening
I was walking across the Leazes Moor in Newcastle with a set
of kayaking paddles (2m long aluminum pole) in my hand. Dark
sky.... "hmmmm - might rain". I heard this high pitching
"singing" noise and I experienced a serious bad hair moment.
Being a clever Physics bod, I checked my paddles as far away
as I could and "made low" - about 15 seconds later there was
a massive discharge of lightning on the chimney of the
medical school ~250 metres away - most scary!

Cheers, Chris

--
_____________________________________________________

Chris Walters Hungerford, UK
_____________________________________________________

vernon levy said:

You'd be safe inside a car - not because of the tyres
being 'taller' I hasten to add.

Don't count on it - that's one that lots of people
misunderstand.

erh.noaa.govlightning.htmlOpen ↗

Tony

"Tony Raven" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

vernon levy said:

You'd be safe inside a car - not because of the tyres
being 'taller' I hasten to add.

Don't count on it - that's one that lots of people
misunderstand.

erh.noaa.govlightning.htmlOpen ↗

shirley that was the distinction that Vernon was alluding
to? The car makes an effective Faraday cage

best wishes james

james said:

shirley that was the distinction that Vernon was alluding
to? The car makes an effective Faraday cage

That's one of the points people get wrong. Faraday Cages are
for static electricity. Lightning is anything but static.
Your protection is through something called skin depth with
causes the currents to run in the outer layers of the metal.
You can get a electric shock by touching the metalwork
inside a car during a lightning strike. You can't get a
shock inside a Faraday cage no matter where you touch it as
long as you don't poke a finger outside the cage.

Tony

Quoted message said:

That's one of the points people get wrong. Faraday Cages
are for static electricity. Lightning is anything but
static. Your protection is

through

Quoted message said:

something called skin depth with causes the currents to
run in the outer layers of the metal. You can get a
electric shock by touching the

metalwork

Quoted message said:

inside a car during a lightning strike. You can't get a
shock inside a Faraday cage no matter where you touch it
as long as you don't poke a

finger

Quoted message said:

outside the cage.

A mislaid 'r' making safe into safer would have helped in
my original posting. After all where would you prefer to
be in an electrical storm - outside of your car or inside
of your car?

"james" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Tony Raven" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

vernon levy said:

You'd be safe inside a car - not because of the tyres
being 'taller' I hasten to add.

Don't count on it - that's one that lots of people
misunderstand.

erh.noaa.govlightning.htmlOpen ↗

shirley that was the distinction that Vernon was alluding
to? The car makes an effective Faraday cage

If you put an 'r' on the end of safe then you get a better
and more accurate sense of my assertion. I never called the
vehicle a Faraday cage.

Simon Mason said:

I was out cycling from work yesterday and could hear there
was lightning about in my earphones on AM radio by the
static crashes. I couldn't actually hear any thunder or I
would have taken cover myself.

news.bbc.co.uk3762Open ↗
613.stm

Shocking.

in message <[email hidden]>, Vivian

(') said:

I wonder if he was killed while he was on the bike. I
always thought that if you were ON the bike,
lightning wouldn't kill you b/c of the tyres- they
are made of rubber.

Well, I remember having posted to this very group not a
dozen of your English weeks ago saying how unlikely it would
be for anyone to be struck by lightning when cycling, so
this just goes to show...

Lightning seeks the easiest path. It will therefore, all
other things being equal, strike from the highest point
locally. If you're on a bicycle in the middle of an airfield
you're quite likely to be the highest point locally. While
insulation offers some protection, the voltages present in
lightning strikes mean that nothing is complete protection.
After all, stone buildings and tress are not exactly perfect
conductors either, but they are frequently hit.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke)
jasmine.org.uk~simonOpen ↗

I'm fed up with Life 1.0. I never liked it much and now
it's getting me down. I think I'll upgrade to MSLife 97
-- you know, the one that comes in a flash new box and
within weeks you're crawling with bugs.

"Simon Brooke" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:7e7uo1-

Quoted message said:

Well, I remember having posted to this very group not a
dozen of your English weeks ago saying how unlikely it
would be for anyone to be struck by lightning when
cycling, so this just goes to show...

Funniest comment I heard (well not funny - it was a
tragedy) concerned newlyweds on honeymoon who were walking
along a beach in Mexico. A bolt of lightning killed the
barefoot woman and the bloke reckoned he was saved as he
had flip flops on.

news.bbc.co.uk3175447.stmOpen ↗

--
Simon M.