This article struck my fancy- http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2900 .


Pertinent to many of us in lightning country.

Good find.

When I was a Boy Scout leader I had to take training on weather hazards. I started carrying a NOAA weather alert radio, but the threat of lightening continued to bug me. The radio would give me sufficient warning about storms (high winds, tornado, ...) to get the boys to a shelter, but I felt it didn't really provide sufficient warning about lighting strikes.

I finally bought a StrikeAlert lightening detector - a pretty slick device. With the lightening detector I felt that I could reasonably allow the troop to "weather" moderate storms. The detector could give me enough real-time warning that I could load the boys into cars (most of our camping was pretty close to cars).

Now that my Scouting days are done and retirement is in view I plan on bringing the lightening detector with me when out on lakes.

Due to my various life experiences, I am afraid I have used up all my lightning Karma. One of the reasons I live in Anchorage now is there are no thunderstorms here. Living in SE New Mexico, I reached my limit of tolerance for lightning.

Sometimes knowing how a thing really works and what it can do is TMI. Any more, being out in a thunderstorm is like having someone swinging the muzzle of a loaded gun back and forth past your face in between shots downrange. That's what it feels like to me. Just too many near misses and getting stuck in bad spots with no way to get out.

I've heard that there's a chance of surviving cloud to ground strikes, but no one can survive a ground to cloud strike unprotected.

Well Ben, I hate to be the one to zap you with this bolt of news, but we do in fact get lightning in Anchorage. Not as nearly as often as other places in the world, but we do get it.

A few years back a couple were injured by lightning up near the ski area at Arctic Valley, just above town.

My personal experience is that lightning storms in Anchorage are increasing in frequency,relative to when I first got here in 1984. Lots of other folks agree. See Thunder, lightning increase in Anchorage .

Interior Alaska regularly gets lots of lightning storms, which cause many fires.

It is also said that there is no lightning in Southern California - not always true.

In the two years I've been here, I've not seen any lightning in the Anchorage metro area yet. Being out on the northwest side of town, I've heard distant thunder from a couple of systems that wound down the Knick arm, but never made it close enough to see a flash. That's been the closest I've seen so far. I can live with that. One or two storms a year won't bother me, especially since I spend half my time up on the slope, which I am told it is even rarer for lightning there.

Considering where I've been (Florida, SE New Mexico, Denver), relatively speaking, there is virtually no risk of lightning striking me here. It may not be zero, and there may be other hazards I have to contend with, but for now I am happy to trade.

You will note that regading lightning in Anchorage I said "Not as nearly as often as other places in the world, but we do get it."

I once had a mildly scary experience with a thunderstorm up in the Talkeetna Range, NE of Anchorage. But by far the closest calls I've had with lightning were in the Oregon Cascades.

Once in my misspent youth a girlfriend and I were hiking on the PCT north of Mt Jefferson. A thunderstorm moved in but we were down in the flats below Mt Jefferson, so we weren't too concerned. Suddenly bolt struck a tree about 30 feet ahead of us. It blew big strips of bark off the side of the tree like shrapnel. The top of the tree burst into flame. The trail we were on went right past the tree, close enough to touch, and if the lighting had hit few seconds later we would have been right next to the tree.

Another time a buddy and I were climbing the West Ridge of Mt Washington (about a 5.7 route on scary loose volcanic rock) when a thunderstorm started to move in. We were very near the top and opted to quickly finish the route and descend the easy standard route. Just as we got to the summit, our hair started to stand on end from static electricity. We made the fasted rappel in history to get off that thing!

In later years I did some climbing around Boulder Colorado. There you could about set your watch by the afternoon thunderstorms. You just timed your climb to be up and back down before then.

So did you put out the fire and save suppression costs? Enquiring minds want to know....

We lived by the same clock in Arizona. Be off the gnarly bits by 3PM or suffer the consequences.

Yep, statement noted.

I've been kicked off of mountaintops the hard way a time or two while working on radio sites. Watching precursor arcs across the legs of a tower is absolutely terrifying and awesome, and made me feel like a little bug about to get stomped on.

I was up in the hilltops outside of Deckers CO one time looking down over a thunderstorm near Flourissant (sp). I opted to turn around and go back to Deckers than drive down through that mess.

i always thought our Midwest summer lightning storms were impressive until i saw some past over the Petrified Forest a few years ago.just not the crash-boom stuff here but crackling bolt after bolt.
on the canoe trips i have had my share of frights and seen enough struck trees to last a lifetime.

I've always felt the notion of a thunderstorm during primitive camping/hiking (with no real protection) to be one of the scariest things I could imagine. Luckily I haven't had to deal with that.

Besides staying "low" there doesn't seem to be a whole lot one can do ... besides praying.

See this - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15919576 - for good advice. The information doesn't seem to have changed much over the years. I was taught the crouch position - keep your boots on, squat down, lower your head, and keep your mouth open (alleviates ear damage, I believe). Scatter the group so that one strike doesn't take out every one.

I have assumed the position twice, both times in a tent at night, acutely aware that the tent poles did not constitute a Faraday cage. The second time I was taking my darling bride up my favorite mountain. A thunderstorm rolled in and I said, "It's time to assume the position," drawing a puzzled look from my sweetie - she was not sure of the context of my statement. That was twenty-five years ago this November...

Has it struck anyone else that this thread has ignited something of a flame war?

Fortunately it started to rain a short time later, which put the fire out.

What made that episode even more unnerving was that unlike being on a peak, there was nothing that would make you think that particular spot would get hit. It was one of those alpine "parks", generally pretty flat ground with clumps of trees and small lakes scattered about. The tree was not any higher or more conspicuous than any of the hundreds of other trees around. It all seemed rather random....

After that bolt hit, we did as the books suggest. We got out away as far as we could from any other trees and squatted on our ensolite pads till the storm passed. After the thunderhead moved out and the rain stopped, it turned into a beautiful mountain evening.

I think the discussion has been energizing!

If not, indeed, electrifying!

The random nature of lightning strikes....Back when the earth had just cooled, I worked as a Fire Control Aide at what is now Saguaro NP in the Rincon Mtns. Got to see a lot of strikes and blasted trees. I, too, was impressed by the random nature of the strikes, very small comfort in later encounters...

I slept under a tarp the very same night that an "all time record high number of lightning strikes" front passed right through the area. Not much by continental U.S. standard, but clearly a night to remember.

When the weather rolled in I assessed the situation, and found that I had pitched my tarp in the perfect spot to ride out the thunderstorm anyway: Slight depression in a slightly hilly area. Most trees had been cut down, so no high trees or anything right by my tarp, but plenty of high threes on nearby hills. I was in the perfect "lowest possible risk" location, and I had a splendid view of the show! So I just lowered the tarp to make it more resistant to wind, then it was just to lie down and enjoy the show! Which I did, and it sure was a hefty show!