For example, where would they, or
how could they, get such specific information about what lightning does relative to ravines, or caves of a certain size? Who paid the grant money? How was the study done? How did they measure the exact behavior of lightning currents in ravines and caves?
And how do they compare the liklihood of being struck on open water versus on contiguous land? Everyone is already agreed that cowering under trees is dangerous, so I guess we didn’t need to be told not to stand on the roots.
We gotta be responsible for recognizing when people are spouting more than they know, or even more than can possibly be known.
I’ve often said the opposite. Go enjoy
yourself on the water even if there might be a thunderstorm. I always do.
Of course if I see thunderstorms coming in on radar, I might sit it out.
Canoeist struck by lightning
Just this week a girl was hit by lighting while canoeing.
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/20212406/detail.html
Well, while portaging anyway.
odds change by placing oneself at risk
Jay the guy was a forrest ranger who spent his entire life on ridge tops and mountains in an area of very frequent strikes. I saw the documentary on him. It was a bit tragic actually, as he never took any precautions. After the first strike he was clearly not all there mentally or physically. God knows after the second and so on.
One of the lesser known aspects of being struck indirectly is that one survives about 70 % of the time, but as I learned in my Wilderness Medical training, the not visible injuries to almost all one’s physical systems are numerous and quite awful.
used to be so
You are right, there has been some marked misinformation in books and the web, and also true that earlier medical and scientific ideas have undergone extensive research and have been vastly improved.
The current state of knowledge is dramatically more accurate and consistent for almost all situations, but not ALL.
You might reread the latest and now accurate information to assess your own person acceptable risk calculations
: > )
Sometimes it just not your day!
or it is depending on how you look at it.
About seven or eight years ago, on a hot and hazy day a young man was killed by lightning as he played football on the beach at Island Beach State Park. Witnesses described it as a bolt out of the blue as there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.
Actually, there was a cloud in the sky, a thunderstorm, passing offshore and obscured by the haze. Various reports have put the storm anywhere from a few miles offshore to as far as 25 miles offshore.
I was sailing a Hobie Cat that day on the bay just west of IBSP and noted that the haze had darkened first to my southwest and then to the southeast. Even with the haze i had almost unlimited visability. Meanwhile on the bay it was blue sky overhead and I felt absolutley no threat from the distant pop up thunderstorm in the haze. I then heard the thunder from the bolt that killed that kid as i was sailing only a few miles away. I remember thinking “Where the hell did that come from?” Later that day on radio we heard the sad news.
Years later I was standing on a dock at a marina, blue sky overhead, but a storm passing far to the north. Lightning struck a sailboat on the next dock with a deafening sound. Whoo that was close!
Freakish and scary learning events.
yeah, heard of him
now, if I only could suck up to somebody with the same odds of winning the lottery… 
I gotta think
– Last Updated: Jul-31-09 11:19 PM EST –
You're a retired engineer, or similar profession. Came from a family of engineers as well as went to college with a heavily engineering college nearby - nothing like the hairs that could be split when you got a few of them together.
Until I know more than the certified Wilderness Medical responder that might save my ass one day, I'll defer to their knowledge. I don't expect to know more than one of them very soon.
Growing up
6 kids struck under a tree in Rosendale, N.Y. changing after swimming due to thunder in the distance. One lived!
Dagnabit !!! …
… gotta do somethin , go for cover as best you can … and hope it won’t blow you away .
When the lightning bolts hit real close to ya , it soooooo loud you near jump out of your shoes , hate that !!!
Psychologist I believe…
Oppositional Defiant at that.
Roger that, mmealman!
Lived in the lightning capital of the U.S. (central Florida)all my 55 years on this planet. Lightning, rain, thunderstorms. It’s all a part of living in Florida. I abide with thunderstorms at least 30 times a year while paddling. Never been struck yet.
Came close, though.
A pine tree not more than 30 feet away on a high bank got hit, blown apart actually, and I still carry the scar from hot sap burning my arm but so it goes.
You either stay inside, wither up and die without know how great life can be or you can go outside, take your chances, and live life to the fullest.