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:
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
The problem is if you were swimming in an indoor pool and got fried they aren't worried about you suing (your a bit too crispy) they are worried about your family suing. Only sort of kidding people sue for the dumbest things, if I was in charge of an indoor pool you'd all be booted and I'd stay and swim. :)
People just have to cover their butts.
Think in terms of relative risk here...I am so much more likely to be involved in a fatal car accident every single time I drive somewhere than I am to be injured while swimming in an indoor pool during a thunderstorm. Perhaps we should pass laws against all motorized vehicles for our own safety. The only reason there are policies forcing us out of indoor pools during thunderstorms is the fear of litigation (in other words, not because there is a proven substantial risk).
Originally posted by Allen Stark
If i remember my college physics,the charge in an enclosed conductor is always ZERO. Thats why a car is safe in a thunder storm(not because it has rubber tires.) Most indoor pools are going to have metal surrounding them in the walls making them essentially inside an enclosed conductor and therefore safe.
Allen! That could be the next trend in building pools.... making sure they are inside an enclosed conductor and therefore 'safer' to be in during a thunderstorm. Don't know how you would get water into and out of the pool but I'm sure someone could figure that out.
Okay all you engineers when you start to build these kinda pools remember I gave you the idea and want a cut of the profits.
Few indoor pools are grounded. It used to be thought that indoor pools didn't conduct eletridity from lithening. then there wsa a study done inthe late 1980's that found that almost all lightening related deaths occurred when people wewre swimming indoors during lightening storms. The study was done by the American Red Cross and the NIH. It is extremely dangerous to swim during a lightening storm. Mst gymnasiums & rec centers are natural conductors.
I think hta if the pool is indoors & the building is metal that's the most unsafe. the eletricity has no where to go but through hte building exce[pt in to the water. A structure like a Bultler buildin isn't a car. I thnk the problem with a building is that the electricty tries to find a way to flow out of the building. I think it remains like a frayed wire.
I love storms, too. Last week, I hauled my butt outta bed at 4.45AM to go to practice, only to have a storm blow in off the sea 500 yards into my warm-up. GRRRR... :mad:
I just used the time to cross-train at the gym.
peace...
Originally posted by Allen Stark
If the pool is indoors and the building has a metal frame,it's SAFE!!! Not just probably safe,but completely safe.(unless someone runs a power line from the outside into the pool.) I work in a construction project office that is tasked with the design and construction of various building projects. I took this problem to the certified architect, electrical and civil engineers here at my office. Buildings, including metal frame ones, must have a lightning arrestor system (lightning rods) and necessary grounding to protect the building from lightening strikes. (Given the capricious nature of lightning, arrestor systems are not as simple as one would think.) Unless you can be absolutely sure the building properly incorporates such a system, it is not advisable to be in a pool within the building during such a storm. Also, lightning can travel through underground piping and wiring from other sources, such as adjacent buildings. It just makes common sense to get out, move out of the area and wait for the storm to pass. I've been in the pool where I swim when fierce storm came up one night and the pool was cleared out. Good thing. We saw a bright flash, heard a snap (electrical discharge), then sizzle and then a hugh boom. Lightning had struck very closely to the building enclosing the pool. No one was in it at the time. An ounce of prevention is a pound of cure.
I spoke with my brother-in-law. He is an Electrical Engineer. He said that if the el;ectricity has no where to be groounded, the building isn't safe. It isn't like most building becaseu fo the structure of the building. If it is grounded, it is safe. Most pools aren't grounded. Also, the main reason to get out is becasue of possible damage to the structure of the pool from storm damage such as rain, wind, or lighting hitting trees or parts o f the buildign , and finally fire. so the buildign id safe only if nothing happenings.
Sorry to revive the zombie thread, but I just gotta.
We've been having lots of afternoon storms -- GA weather now is like FL weather was 20 yrs ago -- and they close the indoor pool when there's thunder!
This is idiotic.
Especially considering that they have no guards and a "swim at your own risk" policy. There are plenty of times when I'm in there by myself for long periods. I could choke or have a heart attack in the water, or slip and crack my head on the deck, and I could be dead for half an hour before anyone noticed.
That would be my tough luck b/c I'm at my own risk.
But when it thunders, they gotta stop my workout.
And since I swim in the middle of a split work shift, this completely scratches my workout for the day.
I can't believe how stupid this is. As far as I know, there has never been a lightning-related injury in an indoor pool ever.
I'm more likely to get hit by lightning when I go back to my truck, after being ejected from the pool, than I am if I were to keep swimming.
Will someone please bring sanity back to our fearful, cowering culture?!
Next time it happens, I'm tempted to just keep swimming. Can't hear them thru my earplugs, y'know.
