Cycling through lightning?

[berty bassett]

nice to know he knew how to conduct himself in public !

 

[MattHB]

he always was a bright spark

 

[Peter Armstrong]

Was cycling last night up and over some moors, before I got to the peak, i saw lightning, I s**t myself, stoped in a bus Shelter, (Brick) and called the wife to come pick me up.

 

[wealthysoup]

I was on a touring holiday in France and got chased along the top of the ridges for a couple of days by thunderstorms. Actually cycling wasn't quite as concerning as lying there in a tent at night on a flat open camping site while a storm went through. If you are caught out though the recommendation is to get away from anything metallic and/or tall, find a depression in the ground,squat down with your feet close together, tuck your head down, link your hands together across the top of your head and put your elbows on your knees.

Most people are killed by the voltage difference in the ground radiating out from a strike, not the strike itself so keeping your feet and legs together minimises that and short circuits any currents through your legs not your body. If you do have a direct hit it will go through your hands and arms into your knees and legs rather than down through your head and torso. That's the theory anyway. If you find shelter in a cave stay away from the entrance as lightning can sheet across it.

Can't stress enough how important it is to keep feet touching in this type of scenario. I know of atleast 1 death in the UK electric industry in recent years which could have been prevented based on that (they believe it was the voltage difference across his legs that killed him)

If it's going to be stormy are you going to enjoy being away? If not then surely its best to leave it until a later date?

 

[psmiffy]

I was curious about this a few years ago having been caught in the open in a big electrical storm in the mountains in France - reported instances seem to be relatively rare - about 1-2 fatalities per year - mainly in the USA - enough of a concern to me when cycling in the open in areas where there are intense electrical storms that if the storm is within 5km of me that i go and find somewhere to hide (about 15secs between flash and crash) -also tends to be deluging it with rain as well - so not that bad a policy - but i have no real strategy what to do if I cannot find somewhere to hide.

 

[Chrisc]

At the first rumble, ride straight to the nearest pub....

 

[berty bassett]

At the first rumble, ride straight to the nearest pub....

does that include when your belly rumbles as well

 

[Chrisc]

does that include when your belly rumbles as well

I'd include belly rumbles, yep! :-)

 

[Sara_H]

We're back! There wasn't any lightning!

 

[billy1561]

Me and a mate got caught on Sunday in a horrible storm at Antrobus. It went really dark and started to rain and then there was a helluva flash which lit the whole road up like a million lightbulbs and a crack of thunder that scared the crap out of me! A torrential down pour followed which lasted at least 30 minutes. We took shelter at the Antrobus arms smoking shelter. I've honestly never seen anything as bad or so sudden. Soaked to the skin for over 2 hours.

 

[snorri]

We're back! There wasn't any lightning!

Welcome back Sara_H
We told you you would be OK, and you know CC always comes up with the right answers.

Can we look forward to a (brief) tour report?