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Lightning reactions

PHILIP JACKMAN

From Saturday's Globe and Mail

Latest comment posted at 8:01 PM EDT 09/07/08

What to do on a bike in a storm ...Read the full article

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  1. Dan P from Calgary, Canada writes: Um, any chance we could get a response from an atmospheric scientist or physicist on this? No offense, but a "reference librarian" who happens to have read a US magazine article isn't quite the credible source I'd be looking for.
  2. John Smith from Ottawa, Canada writes: Dan P from Calgary, Canada writes: Um, any chance we could get a response from an atmospheric scientist or physicist on this? No offense, but a "reference librarian" who happens to have read a US magazine article isn't quite the credible source I'd be looking for.

    Having worked as a reference technician, I wouldn't be surprised if the reference librarian knows as much as both atmospheric scientist and physicist on the subject. The librarian could probably draw from other key sources.
  3. George Daszkowski from Port Credit, ON, Canada writes: First the advise in my opinion is lacking.

    If you are on a bike in a thunderstorm you are vulnerable.

    You must lower your profile. The question state you are on a road which in most places will have a ditch.

    Get off the bike and lie down in the ditch to be sure that you do not act like an antenna and attract a lightning strike. Keep the bike standing to act like an antenna but do not stay close to it.

    If there is no ditch, find the lowest spot and lie flat in it.

    If there is lightning striking near you, you may want to curl up into the smallest lowest ball you can to minimize your ability to be struck.
  4. E. Biggs from Canada writes: Last year I contacted the National weather bureau in the States ( I assume their lightning is the same as ours and ours is not superior) regarding lightning on a golf course.

    The have a lightning expert who says:
    - More people are killed each year in the States by lightning than by tornados and hurricanes combined.

    - Using carbon fibre items like golf shafts or carbon fibre bikes is not a deterent against lightning as they can be even more of an attractor and metal.

    - The rule they and the PGA use is that if you can hear thunder you are in the danger zone. Apparently people have been hit and killed under a clear blue sky but there was a storm many miles away.

    - Get off the bike, move away from the bike get into the crouch position and stay there until you can no longer hear any thunder.
    If you can get under a shelter (not tree) but indoors that is the best.

    Even a near miss can kill you.

    You are a long time dead.

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