Struck by Lightning?

On Tue, 31 May 2005 07:13:20 -0700, Zoot Katz <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Tue, 31 May 2005 09:41:13 -0400, <[email hidden]>,

Ken said:

And how WOULD someone write about being killed by lightning??

You've never heard of ghost writers? (in the sky)

Their pens are still on fire and their paper is soaking wet...

Jasper

:
: I didn't know him personally, but around the time I moved to Sacramento
: in 1985, a cyclist on the American River Bicycle Trail (later morphed
: into the Jedediah Smith MURP) was struck by lightning. The lightning
: strike put a fist-sized hole in his helmet, and rendered him unconscious.

blankety-blank helmet!

In article <[email hidden]>,

Matt O'Toole said:

You're protected in a car because the metal forms a protective cage around you

Best I tell that to my wife's Saturn.

John Henderson said:

Also avoid a different risk from ground
current by avoiding the shelter of small caves or overhangs.

I've never understood the risk in small caves or overhangs. Can you
explain?

- Frank Krygowski

Robatoy said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

Matt O'Toole said:

You're protected in a car because the metal forms a protective cage around you

Best I tell that to my wife's Saturn.

The Saturn's got a lot of steel in it. The plastic is just a shell on
the vertical panels, IIRC.

- Frank Krygowski

On Tue, 31 May 2005 09:41:13 -0400, "Ken" <[email hidden]>
wrote:

<SNIP>

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Since no one here wrote about their experience of being killed by
lightning:
http://list.massbike.org/archive/200107/0211.html

And how WOULD someone write about being killed by lightning??

Ken

Quoted message said:

and here is some general information.

http://www.lightningsafety.com

Very quickly indeed.

Ben

Quoted message said:

I've never understood the risk in small caves or overhangs.
Can you explain?

Huge currents can be flowing in the vicinity. The voltage
differential between different exposed surfaces can be high
enough to discharge across the gap, with any occupant as part
of the circuit.

John

i was in the vicinty of stikes hmmmm lets say three years worth and
aside from "incidents" sought out strikes when in college
the big deal is "what is the earth doing underv your feet" during a
storm.
I'm not sure one can tell but maybe on inquiry one can.
that is lightning may go right past you raising the hair a bit with a
brief shock and not flow thru you ground up
or you get it full force ground up.

sw fla has a fantastic phenomena with multi strikes and cell towers at
250'
i lived near one doing burd research in a wiolderness area atop a
bay-the tidal zone was a few feet away, the ground plastic.
lightning, storm king in second, comes from ten miles away tunneling
through low clouds in a flash of colorful incandescence to hit the
tower. the tower lights up as a flourescent tube! rumbleruymblerumble
ten pins plus.

moral-the high point protects!

what amazed was standing nearby watching this-i saw lightning come out
of the sky to the nearby sewage plant dome ojn my right, flow a hundred
feet off the ground, veer upward and cross the open field to the tower
1/2 mile south to my left: only a tingle and mild shock.

Sheldon Brown said:

how much risk is there of being struck by
lightning while cycling?

LoL! Haven't posted here in a while since I broke my wrist... but I'm
wondering why this thread hasn't turned into a frame material rant. :P

Wouldn't steel frames be more dangerous conductors and plastic bikes be
considered safer t-storm rides?

And the tinfoil helmet crowd, they're just asking for it. Tzzzzt.

😄

maxo said:

Sheldon Brown said:

how much risk is there of being struck by
lightning while cycling?

LoL! Haven't posted here in a while since I broke my wrist... but I'm
wondering why this thread hasn't turned into a frame material rant. :P

I believe it sparked a few comments.

:-P yourself!

"maxo" <[email hidden]> wrote in message >

Quoted message said:

LoL! Haven't posted here in a while since I broke my wrist... but I'm
wondering why this thread hasn't turned into a frame material rant. :P

The material of the frame doesn't matter.

The thing is if you're laying out on one of those damn
recumbent contraptions and get hit by lighting then it's
is always 100% fatal, no survival rate for bent vs lighting
strike.

Tue, 07 Jun 2005 04:32:51 GMT, <Tr9pe.1588437$Xk.202463@pd7tw3no>,
Prince "Fabrizio Mazzoleni" <[email hidden]> decreed:

Quoted message said:

The thing is if you're laying out on one of those damn
recumbent contraptions and get hit by lighting then it's
is always 100% fatal, no survival rate for bent vs lighting
strike.

Don't say that like it's a bad thing.

Mercifully they've often got those attractive little lightening rods
sticking up thereby sparing the rider further unnecessary humiliation.
--
zk

In article <[email hidden]>,

Zoot Katz said:

Tue, 07 Jun 2005 04:32:51 GMT, <Tr9pe.1588437$Xk.202463@pd7tw3no>,
Prince "Fabrizio Mazzoleni" <[email hidden]> decreed:

Quoted message said:

The thing is if you're laying out on one of those damn
recumbent contraptions and get hit by lighting then it's
is always 100% fatal, no survival rate for bent vs lighting
strike.

Don't say that like it's a bad thing.

Mercifully they've often got those attractive little lightening rods
sticking up thereby sparing the rider further unnecessary humiliation.

OTOH, maybe they can outrun the lightning bolt.

cheers,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

Fabrizio Mazzoleni said:

The material of the frame doesn't matter.

The thing is if you're laying out on one of those damn
recumbent contraptions and get hit by lighting then it's
is always 100% fatal, no survival rate for bent vs lighting
strike.

Absolutely. Being struck on the head by a street light is almost invariably
fatal.

--
Dave Larrington - <http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/>
You can't have ham!

Another lightning story
I was jogging at Wright's Landing on the Apalachicola River's eats
bank when a low black cloud roiled across the river toward me and the
pine plantation of 6" diameter pines to my right and north.

I stood watching this and evaluated the situation as critical-the cloud
seemed near tornadic. That is the story. I stood watching. I shoul;d
not have stood watching at least given the knowledge of potential
tornado activity I should at least kneel and I did not.

The plantations rows ran n-s.

ZZZZZZZZZnnnickckkk BLAMMO! One strike about hmmm 6" across about
hmmmmmmm ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZNNNNNNNIIIIIIccccckkk
BLAMMO! Two strikes

Both strikes about hmmm 175' the first, the second 250' both into
6" pines.

Kneel. Lay down.

But - at Daytonah down at Ponce's Inlet. The vast line opf storm
clouds that lies west over the swamp about 8-9-10m miles inland blew
east across the sandspit and opver the light tower. Blammo blammo
blammo-a good 30 minutes worth. I hid in the dunes. But when I came out
I found the beach crawling with beached Hobe sailors nonchalantly
standing around blammo blammo blammo completely unconcerned by the
strikes into the tower.

That's a different perspective-sailing v. jogging at wright's
landing. I'm told the lightning goes zzziccck down the mast and into
the water!

But, like swimming with wild dolphins after getting a good look at
their mouths no matter how friendly they are; I once stood near a
strike definitely coming out of the water for no apparent reason about
150' off a dock I stood on with a fairly tall hailer-lookout tower a
few feet from me. Verrrrryy impressive deadly. zzzzniiiccckkkkkblammmo!

Luck of the draw

does movement-wet rubber over wet amacite-generation of static
electricity going to ground-have a bearing here? or does a wet tire
generate anything on wet pavement?

oh god-i readcwhere brownie doesn't want to hearabout this.
good grief. anyway-here in cat country, it lightnings constantantly but
never herd of a cyclists getting killed. golfers left and right but you
know golfers, right?
ask laura hallam

[email hidden]
"Laura Hallam" <[email hidden]>
FBA News

Quoted message said:

Another lightning story
I was jogging at Wright's Landing on the Apalachicola River's eats
bank when a low black cloud roiled across the river toward me and the
pine plantation of 6" diameter pines to my right and north.

I stood watching this and evaluated the situation as critical-the cloud
seemed near tornadic. That is the story. I stood watching. I shoul;d
not have stood watching at least given the knowledge of potential
tornado activity I should at least kneel and I did not.

The plantations rows ran n-s.

ZZZZZZZZZnnnickckkk BLAMMO! One strike about hmmm 6" across about
hmmmmmmm ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZNNNNNNNIIIIIIccccckkk
BLAMMO! Two strikes

Both strikes about hmmm 175' the first, the second 250' both into
6" pines.

Kneel. Lay down.

I lived for a while in Minnesota and they gave out a warning that if you
felt the ZZZZZZZnnniiick efecct and your hair started going up on end
that yes you were the target and to drop to the ground, mud or not. It
was "To hell with the cloths, I don't want to get hit.". It happened to
me once, when I was dumb enough to go out into a field to watch the far
off thunderstorm (which wasn't really that far). I dropped into the mud
and the lightning hit a tree about 20 feet away. The wife made sure to
give me the 'stupid' lecture when I got back to the house. Another time
I got stuck on a lake in Wisconsin when I was about 12 and one of those
five minute "Drive by" storms hit and all I could do was lay one the
bottom of the boat (aluminum) and not be the highest thing on the lake.
Fortunately all the strikes were on trees on the shore, but I did row
back rattled. Later that night another one blew in and there were some
hits on the water, big ones that sounded like a big bomb going off. I
though of going to look for electrocuted fish floating after the storm
but my dad put the stoppers on that one.
Bill Baka

Quoted message said:

But - at Daytonah down at Ponce's Inlet. The vast line opf storm
clouds that lies west over the swamp about 8-9-10m miles inland blew
east across the sandspit and opver the light tower. Blammo blammo
blammo-a good 30 minutes worth. I hid in the dunes. But when I came out
I found the beach crawling with beached Hobe sailors nonchalantly
standing around blammo blammo blammo completely unconcerned by the
strikes into the tower.

That's a different perspective-sailing v. jogging at wright's
landing. I'm told the lightning goes zzziccck down the mast and into
the water!

But, like swimming with wild dolphins after getting a good look at
their mouths no matter how friendly they are; I once stood near a
strike definitely coming out of the water for no apparent reason about
150' off a dock I stood on with a fairly tall hailer-lookout tower a
few feet from me. Verrrrryy impressive deadly. zzzzniiiccckkkkkblammmo!

Luck of the draw

does movement-wet rubber over wet amacite-generation of static
electricity going to ground-have a bearing here? or does a wet tire
generate anything on wet pavement?

NPR ran a story on this morning-lighning deaths fell dramatically with
the demographic change from usa farm life to usa suburb-city life-from
over a hundred a year to few (golfers-farmers-fishermen)
so the bike riding along passages sided with poles and trees is safe
enough.
the NOAA poeple tell us that 'kneel' is incorrect
CROUCH!

Quoted message said:

the NOAA poeple tell us that 'kneel' is incorrect
CROUCH!

Correct! You want to minimize the area of contact with the ground.
Basic in every wilderness first aid course.

i'll jump on it!