[philmont] Baldy Porch Talk - Lightning Safety.

One of the problems with lightning is that it is very hard to quantify. I
worked on a team at NASA (many years ago) where we were asked our opinion of
what would happen if lightning hit the Space Shuttle. We weren't looking at
physical damage, but rather how it might affect the computers and
communications links. After a couple of weeks our conclusion was that we
had no idea! Making various assumptions about the strength of the lightning
and how it travelled through the metal skin, we decided it might have no
effect whatsoever or it might kill the computers. The Shuttle still does
not fly in areas where there might be lightning.

A big part of the problem is that lightning is not something that is static
or that you can describe very well. Yes, electricity tends to take the path
of least resistance, but that is a gross oversimplification. If one path
has 10 times as much resistance as another available path, then 10% of the
electricity will still flow through the path with the higher resistance.
10% of a lightning bolt could still do a lot of damage! In addition, the
lightning is mostly travelling through air, and as it travels it heats up
the air to very high temperatures which ionizes the air and drastically
changes its resistance. So two lightning bolts in almost the same spot
might travel along two quite different paths.

Having read the NOAA information, it appears that partially-enclosed
shelters offer very little protection over being totally in the open.
Obviously a tent offers none. I would guess that a tent with aluminum poles
is actually worse than being in the open, but that's just a guess. Lying
down in the tent gets you as low as possible in that spot, but it probably
matters much more where the tent is located.

If I had the choice of lying in a tent or running to an enclosed shelter, I
would probably choose the shelter, assuming I could get there in a minute or
so!

If there is anyone out there who is an expert in this area, let us know.

Guinn Unger

Philmont 2007

From: philmont@troop47.com [mailto:philmont@troop47.com] On Behalf Of
WHDickens@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2007 5:49 AM
To: philmont List Member
Subject: [philmont] Baldy Porch Talk - Lightning Safety.

Any thoughts on whether laying flat, and dry, in a pup tent is safer than
crouching in the rain???

I know not to lay flat when in the storm while backpacking, but we didn't
have packs, only duffel bags.

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Received on Wed Aug 1 09:43:11 2007