bucky
Eastern Shore of MD
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Joined: 05/07/2003
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I should have stated that you will hear the far off thunder first. That is when it is time to react if you choose to. Joe B is right, lightning is way faster than thunder from the same strike.
99 Chev 7.4 crew dually and a Coachmen TT.
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the_armadillo
SE Texas
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Joined: 08/29/2011
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Good Sam RV Club Member
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Lightning topic (from above)
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camperpaul
Wherever I park my travel trailer
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Joined: 05/10/2006
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mexbungalows wrote:For curiosity I studied lightening in college. It is a very sobering subject. If you can "intercept" the ionization pathway before it strikes your trailer and direct it away to earth, the main bolt always follows the path of the ions. A simple rod, sticking up three feet from your roof is a good conductor. Don't get fancy and stick a ball or a cube on the tip - a sharp point works best. So does a bare wire conductor (I like hot dip galvanized wire) clamped to the rod. Lead it off the roof and down the side of your rig while trying to stay a few inches away from other metals. Lead the conductor to a metal stake(I use re-bar) pounded into the ground at least six feet away from your trailer) The rod should stick down 2 feet. Keep the ground around it damp, by watering every few days.
I agree...
When I was a kid, I spent my summers on my grandfather's farm in central Illinois where the highest thing around was the lightning rods on top of the barn.
We could watch a thunderstorm approaching and the cloud-to-ground strikes blowing holes in the ground. When a storm would get within 1000 feet of the barn, the lightning strikes would stop. If it was dark enough, we could see a bright blue glow (St. Elmo's Fire) around the points of the lightning rods. This was caused by the pointed rods discharging the the capacitor formed by the cloud and the ground.
When the storm moved away, the glow would fade and the cloud-to-ground strikes would resume when the storm was about 1000 feet away.
The next day we would go up on the roof of the barn and replace the "screw-on" rod tips - the high discharge current would have melted the tips of the rods...
Many years later, my assigned project was to develop a means of protecting a solid state teleprinter from a direct strike to a telegraph line. To enable me to do this, the company leased an artificial lightning generator so I could perform my tests.
If I remember correctly the maximum EMF (Voltage) on the surface of a sphere is ~300V/cm. radius... this is why a point works best for the tip of a lightning rod.
Paul
Ham Radio - K9ERG (since 1956)
Was a campground host at IBSP (2006-2010) - now retired.
Single - Full-timer
2005 Four Winds 29Q
1982 6.2L Diesel Suburban 1500
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RayJayco
Tampa
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Joined: 08/26/2009
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Have a look at where the people were when they were killed by lightning. It will only take a second to see the common denominators...they were all outside...
2011 Lightning Fatalities
You will find them grouped by year in an easy to follow format...
Choose your year
Lightning is typically looking for the shortest path from cloud to the ground, which is why it typically hits trees, people in open fields, etc...
As a side note, if you have ever seen lightning, cloud to ground anyway, it travels great distances through the air. If you really believe that 6" of rubber from a tire is what keeps it from hitting you, try standing on a tire in an open field during a lightning storm... (That was a joke, do NOT do that as the tire will offer you zero protection...)  The guy that was hit while driving the motorcycle should give a clue that tires do not protect you from lightning. Get inside something...a building, car, RV...
Inquiring minds want to know...
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