Lightning

[altvic]

Just arrived in France and will be making route down towards Limoges / Dordogne over next couple weeks. Weather forecast promises periods of strong lightening. My question is whether or not ro sleep up top with the metal roof nearer the goda and the impending lightening strikes across the area?

 

[sidepod]

My guess is the four rubber insulators you drive on will keep you safe.

 

[Amarillo]

My guess is the four rubber insulators you drive on will keep you safe.

It didn't save this fully loaded coach in Greece last month.
http://greece.greekreporter.com/2018/05/26/lightning-strikes-bus-in-northern-greece-no-injuries/amp/


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[Meoncoast]

Park near a big white with a satellite dish,

 

[altvic]

I understand tyre thing - just don't wanr a strike. Letting large white take the hit is good option meoncoast

 

[Hotel California]

Risk is always there even with the roof down .
Make sure to UNplug you 220v socket ON your Cali !
Not at the supply leaving the plug in the Cali with the cable accros on the ground...

 

[Velma's Dad]

Actually it makes no difference if you had rubber tyres or iron ones. If the 500 megajoule lightning bolt can arc down from several miles up in the clouds, six inches more between the Cali and the ground won't trouble it at all, tyres or not.

The thing that keeps you somewhat safe from lightning when you're in a vehicle - although maybe not up in the Cali pop-top which is substantially plastic - is that the vehicle body acts as a Faraday Cage.

(Unless someone who did their O Level physics more recently than me can correct me.)

 

[Amarillo]

Actually it makes no difference if you had rubber tyres or iron ones. If the 500 megajoule lightning bolt can arc down from several miles up in the clouds, six inches more between the Cali and the ground won't trouble it at all, tyres or not.

The thing that keeps you somewhat safe from lightning when you're in a vehicle - although maybe not up in the Cali pop-top which is substantially plastic - is that the vehicle body acts as a Faraday Cage.

(Unless someone who did their O Level physics more recently than me can correct me.)

It is probably absent from the dumbed down GCSE physics syllabus.


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[GrannyJen]

Having qualified for the lucky strike club twice I am quite nervous in electric storms.

I take the thought of lightning strike very seriously and always appreciate the Mercedes Benz experiments of pre WW2 vintage that proved a motor vehicle acted as a faraday cage, taking the voltage around rather than through.

Seriously, when we had severe electric storms recently I was seriously thinking about sleeping in the Cali rather than in my house as it is safer.

One of the two strikes that I have been engaged in was a lightning strike arcing through my car. It was a BMW, travelling under a metal gantry on the M62 near Manchester. The gantry self-destructed but a secondary arc made contact. I can describe in lurid detail what it did for my car but it was the following morning that I remember.

I took my car in for a safety check. A BMW dealer that is ever so teutonically efficient. "This will stump them" I thought.

Quite nonchalantly, talking to the service manager, "Oh, just a lightning strike, presumably you don't have a standard inspection sheet for those". Never even blinked an eye. Turned round, got a big file of his shelf, read a few pages ... "unless anything serious found, will take 67 minutes"........

 

[Skewif]

Just arrived in France and will be making route down towards Limoges / Dordogne over next couple weeks. Weather forecast promises periods of strong lightening. My question is whether or not ro sleep up top with the metal roof nearer the goda and the impending lightening strikes across the area?

Just don’t sleep up top near trees....

 

[altvic]

Risk is always there even with the roof down .
Make sure to UNplug you 220v socket ON your Cali !
Not at the supply leaving the plug in the Cali with the cable accros on the ground...

Will do, HC.

 

[jts46]

Or sleep near a church in a village as they have lightning conductors AND you will have additional benefit of being woken by the bell chimes

 

[Velma's Dad]

Quite nonchalantly, talking to the service manager, "Oh, just a lightning strike, presumably you don't have a standard inspection sheet for those". Never even blinked an eye. Turned round, got a big file of his shelf, read a few pages ... "unless anything serious found, will take 67 minutes"........

Those were the days. In the 1980s in Germany, when I used to collect my Audi from being serviced a technician would bring out the keys and paperwork and, with both he and me standing by respectfully, the chief tech (always addressed as "Meister") would then emerge to scrutinise the check-sheets over his half-moon classes and quiz the quaking junior for several minutes on various esoterics (beyond my German in any case) before he was even prepared to consider putting his signature to the form and allowing the customer to take custody of the keys.

 

[mrcheesbrough]

BBC Top Gear Experiment

 

[GrannyJen]

The scariest thing for me was looking in my rear view mirror. I was the only one on the road for a mile. every one else stopped when bits of the gantry came flying down,

I then pulled over on to the hard shoulder and the whole front of the car was black. I thought it was scorched but when I put my hand on the bonnet it was like touching a warm polythene sheet, and that's what it seemed like when I wiped the black off. I was told later it was an evaporation cloud of tarmac that had settled on the wet surface of the car

 

[Ocean Spirit]

I RTFM (for once) and it says to unplug the electric and pull the roof down so that is the official line and I probably wouldn't do it myself.

 

[Chinmusic]

I’m an A level/GCSE physics and chemistry teacher, Faraday cage theory still valid......
GCSE science syllabus not dumbed down any more, I can assure you.

 

[GrannyJen]

Just don’t sleep up top near trees....

My first entrance fee to the lucky strike club was paid on Dow crag, Coniston, early 1960's.

I had been driven there by a bloke from the Old DG, Langdale, where I was resident and part of the mountain rescue team.

The drive there, on his Royal Enfield motorcycle, was the most frightening experience of my life. I was therefore determined to put him in his place by scaring him equally on B Route.

We roped up in increasingly bad weather. Two pitches on, the crux pitch, 120 foot of rope required, I led off with the distant boom of thunder in my ears. Sped up what was considered to be the "hard bit", barely noticed it being just back from Annapurna, belayed in on a nice flake, gathered the rope tight, gave the call, sat back waiting for him to sh*it himself when....

I barely remember the boom. I do remember hanging from a rope with 250 feet below my feet of fresh air, vaguely recovering my senses, hauling myself up to the belay, noticing with slightly odd fascination that the main karabiner had all but melted, checked my waist harness to notice all but a few strands of my rope had melted.. I had been hanging by threads and suddenly it was me needing the immodium

Terribly subdued when I arrived home at the ODG. burns everywhere including a very painful one where evidently everything had tracked around my Harness

 

[larrylamb]

Jeez Jen, you deserve a medal.

 

[GrannyJen]

Jeez Jen, you deserve a medal.

Going completely off topic, I worked with loads that did.

In those days ODG was not only my home, it was my refuge, and a real hero, Sid Cross, was the owner, my mentor, Jammy, his wife, my saviour,who took a lost child in, and Goodness knows how many people owe their lives to Langdale MRT and all volunteer rescue services around the country. I was not only given my life back by that community I was privileged beyond measure to be allowed to be part of it.

 

[Verity]

Going completely off topic, I worked with loads that did.

In those days ODG was not only my home, it was my refuge, and a real hero, Sid Cross, was the owner, my mentor, Jammy, his wife, my saviour,who took a lost child in, and Goodness knows how many people owe their lives to Langdale MRT and all volunteer rescue services around the country. I was not only given my life back by that community I was privileged beyond measure to be allowed to be part of it.

GJ you have had THE most interesting life. I think we need the full memoirs published soonest!

 

[B J G]

My guess is the four rubber insulators you drive on will keep you safe.

No way - tyres have steel wires in the carcase.

 

[GregW]

My first entrance fee to the lucky strike club was paid on Dow crag, Coniston, early 1960's.

I had been driven there by a bloke from the Old DG, Langdale, where I was resident and part of the mountain rescue team.

The drive there, on his Royal Enfield motorcycle, was the most frightening experience of my life. I was therefore determined to put him in his place by scaring him equally on B Route.

We roped up in increasingly bad weather. Two pitches on, the crux pitch, 120 foot of rope required, I led off with the distant boom of thunder in my ears. Sped up what was considered to be the "hard bit", barely noticed it being just back from Annapurna, belayed in on a nice flake, gathered the rope tight, gave the call, sat back waiting for him to sh*it himself when....

I barely remember the boom. I do remember hanging from a rope with 250 feet below my feet of fresh air, vaguely recovering my senses, hauling myself up to the belay, noticing with slightly odd fascination that the main karabiner had all but melted, checked my waist harness to notice all but a few strands of my rope had melted.. I had been hanging by threads and suddenly it was me needing the immodium

Terribly subdued when I arrived home at the ODG. burns everywhere including a very painful one where evidently everything had tracked around my Harness

Love the use of technical mountaineering terms that would take me 15 minutes of googling and countless distracting detours before I understood what you’ve just said. sounds exciting anyway.


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