ok, this is the second time in the past two weeks I've not been able to go swim due to thunderstorm activity.
Now don't get me wrong.. I LOOOOOVE Thunderstorms, but not being able to swim when you've looked forward to doing so since the previous evening is just no fun at all. :mad:
I was literally out the building and on my way to the Y when an clap of thunder abruptly stopped me in my tracks.. I just turned right around and went back into the building. (and onto the discussion boards of course! lol)
Anyone else go to indoor pools that close during storms? In Oklahoma during spring and early summer it sometimes ends up being like a hail mary to decide to go to practice in hopes that there won't be a storm.:rolleyes:
Parents
Former Member
From a paper by an MD who apparently specializes in this sort of thing (paper link below). The implication is that there IS a good reason to get out of the pool.
"When lightning hits the ground nearby, it is 'grounded ' and I am safe. "
Totally and absolutely FALSE. Despite the fact that we call the earth a "ground," it is very difficult to pump electricity into the ground. Most "earth" is a very good insulator. When lightning hits the ground, it spreads out along the surface and first few inches of the ground in increasing circles of energy called "ground current." If it contacts a fence or a water pipe or wire entering a house it can be transmitted for quite a distance and cause injury to persons near these paths. People, being bags of electrolytes, are better transmitters of electrical current than most ground is, and many are injured by ground current effect each year as the lightning energy surges up one leg that is closer to the strike and down the one further away.
"My mother always told me to stay off the telephone (out of the bath tub, away from windows, unplug the appliances, etc.) during a thunderstorm. "
Good advice, if not always practical. Again, the ground current effect of energy transmitted into the structure along wires or pipes may find the person a better conduit to ground.(3,4) Many injuries occur every year to telephone users inside the home. One of the biggest new areas of consumer fraud has to do with claims of loss of "valuable" databases on computers damaged by lightning.(5)
Paper at:
www.uic.edu/.../ltnfacts.htm
-LBJ
From a paper by an MD who apparently specializes in this sort of thing (paper link below). The implication is that there IS a good reason to get out of the pool.
"When lightning hits the ground nearby, it is 'grounded ' and I am safe. "
Totally and absolutely FALSE. Despite the fact that we call the earth a "ground," it is very difficult to pump electricity into the ground. Most "earth" is a very good insulator. When lightning hits the ground, it spreads out along the surface and first few inches of the ground in increasing circles of energy called "ground current." If it contacts a fence or a water pipe or wire entering a house it can be transmitted for quite a distance and cause injury to persons near these paths. People, being bags of electrolytes, are better transmitters of electrical current than most ground is, and many are injured by ground current effect each year as the lightning energy surges up one leg that is closer to the strike and down the one further away.
"My mother always told me to stay off the telephone (out of the bath tub, away from windows, unplug the appliances, etc.) during a thunderstorm. "
Good advice, if not always practical. Again, the ground current effect of energy transmitted into the structure along wires or pipes may find the person a better conduit to ground.(3,4) Many injuries occur every year to telephone users inside the home. One of the biggest new areas of consumer fraud has to do with claims of loss of "valuable" databases on computers damaged by lightning.(5)
Paper at:
www.uic.edu/.../ltnfacts.htm
-LBJ
