Locate nearby shelters close to your camping site and keep an eye on the National Weather Service for updates. Keep in mind that even if you're staying close to home, bad weather can strike at any time. Plan ahead and familiarize yourself with the location, weather forecast and conditions before venturing out. If you’re heading out this season for a weekend camping trip, there are some important safety tips to be aware of before you go.
We just can’t think about safety inside, as hikers, campers, and others who participate in outdoor recreation are among the highest group of lightning storm-related deaths and injuries. For those who enjoy outdoor activities during this season, it is especially important to be aware of the dangers and take precautions while camping. Especially noteworthy are the intense storms that begin in March and can last into May. If you’ve spent some time on the plains or in the mountains across the West, where electric cooperatives serve, you know all about spring and summer storms. In our power plants, along our transmission lines and in our electrical substations, our employees are focused on electrical safety, just as you are in your homes and businesses.Įlectricity is also a powerful force of nature, and there’s no better demonstration of that power than what we see in the spring and summer lightning season. Electricity is a powerful tool, but we also know how important it is to be safe around electricity. Its best to seek a house or car to stay in during the storm.As an electric utility, we know how valuable electricity is to you in almost every part of your life. Lying down actually sounds like not such a bad idea, except that during thunderstorms it is probably wet down on the ground. Id imagine that this is much less likely to cause injury than a direct lightning strike anyhow.
If your legs are apart, the current may decide to flow through you rather than the ground, but this depends on how good an insulator the wet ground is and how good an insulator your boots are. The ground has a resistivity, and so the voltage changes rapidly from one place to another during the time the current flows. The only thing I can think of that it might have an effect on is if there is a nearby lightning strike, and there is a large amount of current flowing along the surface of the ground nearby. Standing with legs together or apart may not make much difference on anything. Im not so sure about your other questions. Electricity can flow through the metal sides of a car and not through you. The safest place to be during a thunderstorm is a building or a car. Sometimes such people get struck by lightning). If you are carrying metal golf clubs at the time, it could raise your risk (this is a common reason people are standing out in flat fields during thunderstorms, is to carry golf clubs. In this case, you are the tallest object around and may be a target for lightning strikes. Standing out in a field far from trees may also pose risks too. The current from a lightning strike may leave the tree and jump over to you and follow your body on its way to the ground. Trees dont always conduct electricity as well as you do, since people are made mostly out of saltwater. The electric field is strongest near the pointed tip of an electrical conductor, and so trees often make for great targets for lightning strikes. Trees are often the tallest objects around and contain many pointy tips. Well, standing under a tree in a thunderstorm is probably the action you mention that has the biggest problem.
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