How a lightning strike can kill, even when it misses you.

Never heard of Step Potential until today.
Is it assumed to go from leg to leg? But still hits the heart?
Yes. Think of the lighting hitting the ground as the bullseye of a target. Your feet/legs are connecting two different rings/numbers. Cows, horses, etc have a longer distance between their legs and multiple are often simultaneously killed. Your rubber soles aren't enough insulation.
 
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I just googled "lightning blown shoes" and a bunch of hits came up for people literally blown out of their footwear.


@journeyman713 , someone here on Rokslide recently mentioned that you'd be safe inside a car, given the rubber on the tires. Can you confirm that?
My cousin was struck by lightning in his truck at a stoplight. Had his window down with his arm on the door. Wasn't too serious, but he did get struck.
 
I just googled "lightning blown shoes" and a bunch of hits came up for people literally blown out of their footwear.


@journeyman713 , someone here on Rokslide recently mentioned that you'd be safe inside a car, given the rubber on the tires. Can you confirm that?
Yes, IF a live line is laying on your car, the safest place for you is still inside the car. BUT, if the tires were to go flat or blow from damage, you no longer have that insulating factor as much. You can look up many unfortunate real-life examples, where a person tried to get out of their car and walk away, and is killed by shock immediately. As long as that powerlines is laying on the ground as well, you are dealing with power dissipating into the ground creating a ring of Step potential hazards.. Powerline systems have many safety devices built into them, such as fuses, reclosers and substation fault detection that look for an imbalance and shut the line down immediately. But I have seen a 3 phase line buried 50ft deep in an avalanche, with the pole entirely broken and snapped off and carried across a river, where the line was still fully active, because the snow is an insulating factor and the line never broke, so the protective devices that are much further away, never saw enough of an imbalance to kick in. That one was an interesting one to fix, took us all night and then some to come out with a solution to get through the winter
 
Yes, IF a live line is laying on your car, the safest place for you is still inside the car. BUT, if the tires were to go flat or blow from damage, you no longer have that insulating factor as much. You can look up many unfortunate real-life examples, where a person tried to get out of their car and walk away, and is killed by shock immediately. As long as that powerlines is laying on the ground as well, you are dealing with power dissipating into the ground creating a ring of Step potential hazards.. Powerline systems have many safety devices built into them, such as fuses, reclosers and substation fault detection that look for an imbalance and shut the line down immediately. But I have seen a 3 phase line buried 50ft deep in an avalanche, with the pole entirely broken and snapped off and carried across a river, where the line was still fully active, because the snow is an insulating factor and the line never broke, so the protective devices that are much further away, never saw enough of an imbalance to kick in. That one was an interesting one to fix, took us all night and then some to come out with a solution to get through the winter


This info is fantastic. Funny enough, the subject feels like one of those Man Card areas where you're just supposed to know it, like guns, cars, and fixing $h*t. Electricity has always been more like voodoo to me, so you guys laying this out in such a clear and understandable way is very much appreciated. Especially in this context.
 
Yes, the differential of power potential between your feet.
To minimize this, you might keep your feet together, or stand on one foot.
I always throw breakers/disconnects with my right hand and left foot off the ground.
Never had an issue (thankfully) and hopefully that’s never what I need to save me. 🤞
 
Yes, IF a live line is laying on your car, the safest place for you is still inside the car. BUT, if the tires were to go flat or blow from damage, you no longer have that insulating factor as much. You can look up many unfortunate real-life examples, where a person tried to get out of their car and walk away, and is killed by shock immediately. As long as that powerlines is laying on the ground as well, you are dealing with power dissipating into the ground creating a ring of Step potential hazards.. Powerline systems have many safety devices built into them, such as fuses, reclosers and substation fault detection that look for an imbalance and shut the line down immediately. But I have seen a 3 phase line buried 50ft deep in an avalanche, with the pole entirely broken and snapped off and carried across a river, where the line was still fully active, because the snow is an insulating factor and the line never broke, so the protective devices that are much further away, never saw enough of an imbalance to kick in. That one was an interesting one to fix, took us all night and then some to come out with a solution to get through the winter
I’ve got some “glass holes” that my dad has brought home over the years.
Sometimes the reclosers don’t work.

That’s the bad part about electricity.
A lot of “sometimes”.
 
I just googled "lightning blown shoes" and a bunch of hits came up for people literally blown out of their footwear.


@journeyman713 , someone here on Rokslide recently mentioned that you'd be safe inside a car, given the rubber on the tires. Can you confirm that?
You're safe because you aren't touching the vehicle and the ground at the same time. Electricity will flow through the rubber tires to ground and they can and will blow out and or catch on fire unless a breaker or fuse operates.
 
I just googled "lightning blown shoes" and a bunch of hits came up for people literally blown out of their footwear.


@journeyman713 , someone here on Rokslide recently mentioned that you'd be safe inside a car, given the rubber on the tires. Can you confirm that?
I think cars are safe due to electrical shielding, the electric field inside a conductor will remain zero. This might not be correct, but I heard that on average commercial airliner get struck by lightning once a year without ill effects to the plane or passengers.
 
I witnessed my first lightning strike this summer that was too close for comfort. Struck about 400 yards away but it was so loud my ears rang for a period of time after. Sounded like a gun went off


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So stand on one foot and jump when you see a strike? I’m just playing, lighting storms are one of my biggest fears while in the backcountry. No real way to limit your risk just hunker down and pray it’s not your day.
 
1/4 billion Amps in a lighting bolt…and 1 Amp will stop my heart?

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Yes, IF a live line is laying on your car, the safest place for you is still inside the car. BUT, if the tires were to go flat or blow from damage, you no longer have that insulating factor as much. You can look up many unfortunate real-life examples, where a person tried to get out of their car and walk away, and is killed by shock immediately. As long as that powerlines is laying on the ground as well, you are dealing with power dissipating into the ground creating a ring of Step potential hazards.. Powerline systems have many safety devices built into them, such as fuses, reclosers and substation fault detection that look for an imbalance and shut the line down immediately. But I have seen a 3 phase line buried 50ft deep in an avalanche, with the pole entirely broken and snapped off and carried across a river, where the line was still fully active, because the snow is an insulating factor and the line never broke, so the protective devices that are much further away, never saw enough of an imbalance to kick in. That one was an interesting one to fix, took us all night and then some to come out with a solution to get through the winter
Tires don't insulate a car, they ground it. They must ground it because the electrical potential that would build up on the car just driving down the road with insulating tires would be in the millions of volts. Your radio wouldn't work. You'd probably start a fire every single time you went to put fuel in it. People would be getting shocked left and right. You'd drive next to a metal pole and a 4ft static shock would hit it and anyone between.
Same reason airplanes have static wicks. Lightning yes, but their first priority is to dissipate the static charge.

Read up on tire construction. They purposely put carbon in the rubber for many reasons, but one of them is it's a conductor. There's an ASTM standard for passenger car tires that has a range of resistance that is acceptable to dissipate static buildup.
 
I think cars are safe due to electrical shielding, the electric field inside a conductor will remain zero. This might not be correct, but I heard that on average commercial airliner get struck by lightning once a year without ill effects to the plane or passengers.
You are correct - Faraday cage. Many useful applications and sometimes annoying scenarios like no cell service(EM waves) in a giant metal building
 
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