The actual odds of being hit by lightning

[NiceAft]

I'm still thinking your last post over Steve.

Ray

[bahama bound]

I saw that on the news where all the fish fell from the sky miles inland ! Anyway my Mac got struck on the trailer .blew all electronics .now we unplug everything .by the way it was amazing how many fish fell out of the clouds and were still alive floping around on the ground

[CFCassidy]

Saw one of my dockmates (a big metal trawler) get hit once when we were in Portsmouth RI. The main part of the storm was still a few miles away and we were getting ready to hunker down. My wife was just to step onto a metal gangplank down to the dock when it hit with a large BOOM. Scared her half to death.

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

Odds are, about 4 members of this forum will have suffered a lightning strike themselves, and about 1 of them will be active enough to comment on this thread. A few dozen will know of someone not on this forum who's been hit.

Well, I think I'm the third to comment in this thread who has actually been hit...so...so much for stats...lol

I have a whole thread that I wrote about 2 years ago when my Mac was hit sitting on a lift behind my house. Its the second time my property had been hit in about 17 years. 2 years ago, lots of damage...1 lift motor immediately fried, the other one took a few months before it went...and the underwater wiring was fried too and had to be replaced. Blew a thru-hull transducer out of the hull of the boat, fried all the electronics, left a 3/8 inch hole in one of the spreaders, blew the antenaa off of the top of the mast and also caused a bunch of damage in the house.

I used to be in the isolation camp before that but I've switched tacks and now believe in grounding. I had an old side stay that I cut in half and now both pieces dangle from the shrouds into the water during thunderstorm season..ie, now. And at least I did get to get all new electronics out of the deal, nice new radios, DSC and all the latest toys. Prudential was very good with my massive claim that was worth more than half as much as the boat value. Yesterday, I replaced my CB line which was 8.5 years old since it was starting to fray a bit. First time I had the board out since the strike so I did use a flashlight to look up in the trunk and made sure there was no damage in there. It was also the first time I dropped the CB while on the lift (using a rowboat underneath)...last time I did it on the trailer. Overall, the boat is in good shape these days and I haven't been hit again..hoping that 1 in 1000 stat is true now and I've paid my dues!

Oh, and I also did some re-engineering of my dock power. Even though I had to twist the electrician's arm since he kept saying it wasn't required by code, I have put a ground spike in the dirt at the seawall right next to the dock (to augment the 2 spikes that are at the power entry to the house). Figure if my boat does get hit again, hopefully it will dissapate more before entering the house. I also added a sub panel down there with 2 breakers to hopefully give slightly more isolation as well. Although the bottom line is lightning goes whereever it feels like, afterall, it goes through air...not like a breaker panel is going to stop it. In fact, after the strike, all kinds of breakers were tripped everywhere, but that didn't stop anything. But I guess I increase my odds by having more sub panels. Oh yea, and I'm also growing a new (sacrificial) queen palm tree next to the dock that is just about as high as my mast now...lol I used to have a big tree there many years ago but the limbs were growing into the boat's area so I had cut it down years before the strike.

[Russ]

If you live in Florida, I guess you can expect to get struck at some point. I wonder how much more the insurance companies rate you for living there.

The grounding vs. isolation debate is huge. What little I have learned is that water (especially fresh) is a poor conductor of electricity. "Grounding" via water is difficult but some believe it can be done.

The consensus seems to be that it's better to do nothing than to do a bad job at grounding. (eg: connecting jumper cables to stays and tossing over the side)

Circuit breakers work good for low voltages ( < 500) but when you are talking about billions of volts, enough for that static spark to jump thousands of feet from the cloud to the ground, it can easily jump past an inch gap from a tripped circuit breaker and keep on going.

The best prevention from a strike I've heard about seems to be prayer.

[mastreb]

I went out in the storm yesterday and spent the day wet sailing. Any kind of sailing is better than not IMHO. Our guests were a little worried about the lighting, but I told them I just read an article that said people in CA have nothing to worry about.

Then we didn't get hit by lighting.

I do carry a chainsaw in case of shark nado, however.

[BOAT]

Yeah, good idea Matt, over here on the West coast you are much more likely to get bitten by a sharknado or a sharktapus than lighting.

[Carioca]

Get a rubber mast.

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

The grounding vs. isolation debate is huge. What little I have learned is that water (especially fresh) is a poor conductor of electricity. "Grounding" via water is difficult but some believe it can be done.

The consensus seems to be that it's better to do nothing than to do a bad job at grounding. (eg: connecting jumper cables to stays and tossing over the side)

What consensus is this that you are talking about? I did nothing and got hit. After reading up on it more, I would say that there is more consensus of people who believe in grounding (regardless of method) than in doing nothing...and there are a whole lot of grounding products out there for boats. Now, if I get hit again while attempting grounding, then I will be in the camp that says I'm damned either way, but at this point, I got hit while doing nothing so I've been grounding ever since. I think the jumper cables work fine until they corrode away after about a year, now I'm using SS cable instead.

[Tomfoolery]

Not for nothing, BOAT, but that's a seriously disturbing avatar.



That has nothing to do with lightning, of course, but I couldn't help myself.

[Herschel]

The article recommends getting a NOAA real-time lightning app and using it.

I have been able to get one of the apps from that site, but it does not show active lightning strikes, just color coded radar with an hour's movement. Has anyone been able to find the app that shows the actual recent lightning strikes in your area? I am looking for an app for the android based phone. It certainly seems like being able to see in real time where the lightning is striking nearby, would be a critical safety improvement for when we are out on the water.

[Tomfoolery]

I got that exact app, and it does show lightning strikes, and a bunch of other stuff, but I had to pay a couple of bucks for it. But I have an iPhone, not an android.

[Steve K]

I went out in the storm yesterday and spent the day wet sailing. Any kind of sailing is better than not IMHO. Our guests were a little worried about the lighting, but I told them I just read an article that said people in CA have nothing to worry about.

Then we didn't get hit by lighting.

I do carry a chainsaw in case of shark nado, however.

Matt,
Hey, a kid was just killed @ Venice beach a few days ago (maybe a week?). Several people injured too. This young fellow that died was in the water. The injured were both in the water and on the pier. Yikes

It is rare in CA. but it does happen. I guess people were saying that there were clouds out to sea but not really close to the beach........ and there was just the one big boom. So it came very unexpectedly.

And remember....... when you're swinging that chainsaw around, don't miss......... they cut fiberglass real good too
re:Sharknado
(all you chainsaw toters got something against a good ole 30.06 with hollow points )

BB,
SK

[drams_1999]

So I live and play in South Florida, and I learned early on that my season would be from September to May each year, because of lightning. I guess you can say I "summerize" my boat instead of "winterizeing".

My first season (2008-2009) I got caught by nasty thunderstorms twice while out on the water, in late May and in early June. Since I implemented my sailing season of September to May, I havent been caught again. It also makes for a nice "maintenance period" each summer to fix stuff and make improvements without feeling guilty about staying on land for 3 or so months.

When I got caught out there by these things It was pretty hairy, lightning was coming down all around, and I would feel a slight shock on the wheel when lightning would hit water, or nothing at all when it would hit land. The shock was equivalent to a static shock you sometimes feel when you touch a metal door.

I'm the only sailor I know that keeps my boat dry during summer, but I certainly don't mind going out with my friends on their boats when they go out during those summer months, just don't want to risk my own boat. They tell me I'm crazy but enjoy having me come along with them.

Nice article! I think it only implied what the odds are......nevertheless I try to minimize my risk by keeping my boat trailered and mast down during the summer. I love the ongoing debate regarding grounding vs. not grounding. I'd love to see if the Mythbusters could test it somehow.

Fair winds!

[Hamin' X]

The article recommends getting a NOAA real-time lightning app and using it.

Has anyone been able to find the app that shows the actual recent lightning strikes in your area?

For Android : https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... .radarcast

Be sure to turn on the lightning layer.

~Rich