Re: Managing a storm / staying dry at camp
Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2020 8:37 am
I refrained from commenting on lightning within this thread as it is off topic, likely to change the subject. However on any web board when a thread has run its course and other members are no longer adding posts, that changes. As someone in a career in hardware electronics, at one point decades ago, I calibrated various test equipment with CRT tubes that like TVs use high voltages to accelerate electrons and after getting zapped a bit even without touching obvious conductors but rather just being near such, much like a tyke that sticks their finger into an ac wall socket and never does such again, I bothered to figure out why. More interestingly personally, during the last 8 years before retiring, I worked as the sole person at a corporation repairing (including SMT soldering) voice over IP telephony switches (router-like boxes) looking through stereo microscopes at microcircuits on pcb's that tend to be damaged by lightning that strike our myriad telephone poles, wires, and towers and then followed wires down in buildings.
This board already had 2 excellent threads years ago that one could have searched for. As is the case with many searches on the web, it is an advantage to understand how to use advanced search features instead of simply entering some obvious word and then being frustrated because there are way too many unrelated hits. For instance to find the old topics Using "lightning", I changed the default search from text and titles to titles only. The first is this 2012 thread maverick started:
http://www.highsierratopix.com/communit ... lightening
He immediately provides a link to a more up to date lightning safety essay than that old 2002 NOLS link.
http://www.lightningsafety.com/nlsi_info/thunder2.html
That leads to a more thorough link:
https://www.weather.gov/safety/lightning
Within that thread I added a more recent and thorough article from 2010 targeting outdoor enthusiasts. The information within for us is much more useful than any others. Despite all the info, all the above does leave out a modest amount of useful wisdom. Read what I added on post #49 of the 2012 thread:
https://www.vaisala.com/sites/default/f ... Gookin.pdf
Then in 2013 rlown started another thread apparently after reading the NOLS advice for getting out of one's tent because of the tent poles haha. He didn't like that and I agree. Well there are times when that would be good advice if one had say set up a tent beneath the lone high tree in an expanse but the advice was not so narrowly explained.
http://www.highsierratopix.com/communit ... ing#p73142
You'll notice I followed up with a comment much like I did above in this thread haha. One issue with advice on all matters of interest to a general audience is authors tend to dumb down whatever to lowest common denominator persons. Much of the advice above does not explain why clearly. What is it about the lightning position in your tent that makes it wiser than laying down in that sleeping bag? Well if ground currents are routing across your tent, then one's feet only touching the floor of a tent provides less distance at the floor level over which a voltage potential between 2 points on the floor might develop. Countering that is the fact by doing so one is also higher in a tent than if prone that is not an issue with ground currents but rather attracting a leader strike. Although tent poles are more likely to conduct currents away from such an immense strike, they are also likely to instantly melt and splatter the metal poles that by time the currents are over, anything in a tent would be toast. More importantly what is not noted is metal tent poles on the surface of the tent fabric are much more likely to redirect ground currents up and over a tent than allow a current to pass through the inside of a tent, especially if poles are in more than one dimension. If one kneels instead of is just being on the feet, a difficult position to maintain for anything but short periods, ground currents through the inside of a tent will only go through one's lower leg and not the upper body that is more likely to kill a person. Additionally you can pray on your knees with more sincerity since you also might be confessing all your nasty ways at that time haha.
Another issue is the myth of an advantage to getting rid of small metal objects within pockets like coins, keys, watches, etc. (Don't forget to pull out those dental fillings, so bring along a good pair of pliers, haha.) The only danger of such objects is if strong currents pass through them, they are likely to get hot or melt while not being any factor in attracting current paths. Likewise leaving that cellphone or camera in the corner of your tent is of no interest while a longer metallic object like a tripod or hiking poles or metal frame of a pack would be. Finally there is wisdom in bringing along a spare plastic bottle that may be used as a pee bottle while stuck inside a tent for longer periods as each time the thunder rattles you, you might have a growing urge to go outside where maintaining the lightning position while relieving that stress is unlikely.
This board already had 2 excellent threads years ago that one could have searched for. As is the case with many searches on the web, it is an advantage to understand how to use advanced search features instead of simply entering some obvious word and then being frustrated because there are way too many unrelated hits. For instance to find the old topics Using "lightning", I changed the default search from text and titles to titles only. The first is this 2012 thread maverick started:
http://www.highsierratopix.com/communit ... lightening
He immediately provides a link to a more up to date lightning safety essay than that old 2002 NOLS link.
http://www.lightningsafety.com/nlsi_info/thunder2.html
That leads to a more thorough link:
https://www.weather.gov/safety/lightning
Within that thread I added a more recent and thorough article from 2010 targeting outdoor enthusiasts. The information within for us is much more useful than any others. Despite all the info, all the above does leave out a modest amount of useful wisdom. Read what I added on post #49 of the 2012 thread:
https://www.vaisala.com/sites/default/f ... Gookin.pdf
Then in 2013 rlown started another thread apparently after reading the NOLS advice for getting out of one's tent because of the tent poles haha. He didn't like that and I agree. Well there are times when that would be good advice if one had say set up a tent beneath the lone high tree in an expanse but the advice was not so narrowly explained.
http://www.highsierratopix.com/communit ... ing#p73142
You'll notice I followed up with a comment much like I did above in this thread haha. One issue with advice on all matters of interest to a general audience is authors tend to dumb down whatever to lowest common denominator persons. Much of the advice above does not explain why clearly. What is it about the lightning position in your tent that makes it wiser than laying down in that sleeping bag? Well if ground currents are routing across your tent, then one's feet only touching the floor of a tent provides less distance at the floor level over which a voltage potential between 2 points on the floor might develop. Countering that is the fact by doing so one is also higher in a tent than if prone that is not an issue with ground currents but rather attracting a leader strike. Although tent poles are more likely to conduct currents away from such an immense strike, they are also likely to instantly melt and splatter the metal poles that by time the currents are over, anything in a tent would be toast. More importantly what is not noted is metal tent poles on the surface of the tent fabric are much more likely to redirect ground currents up and over a tent than allow a current to pass through the inside of a tent, especially if poles are in more than one dimension. If one kneels instead of is just being on the feet, a difficult position to maintain for anything but short periods, ground currents through the inside of a tent will only go through one's lower leg and not the upper body that is more likely to kill a person. Additionally you can pray on your knees with more sincerity since you also might be confessing all your nasty ways at that time haha.
Another issue is the myth of an advantage to getting rid of small metal objects within pockets like coins, keys, watches, etc. (Don't forget to pull out those dental fillings, so bring along a good pair of pliers, haha.) The only danger of such objects is if strong currents pass through them, they are likely to get hot or melt while not being any factor in attracting current paths. Likewise leaving that cellphone or camera in the corner of your tent is of no interest while a longer metallic object like a tripod or hiking poles or metal frame of a pack would be. Finally there is wisdom in bringing along a spare plastic bottle that may be used as a pee bottle while stuck inside a tent for longer periods as each time the thunder rattles you, you might have a growing urge to go outside where maintaining the lightning position while relieving that stress is unlikely.
