Camped in thunderstorm and lightning.

[Avatar]

Just wondering what is the considered action when you find yourself camped in a thunderstorm with lightning strikes nearby.

Lots of scenarios to consider with location.

Lets say times are 3 seconds delay or less, meaning strikes are within 1km but no hut nearby, above tree line
but in a wind sheltered saddle or nestled in rocks or a wind sheltered gully or in snowgums.

Should you stay put, pack up and walk out with possible exposure required on a high pass and using metal trekking poles,
leave tent and walk out immediately, or take down tent poles and manage the night under the flattened fly or other?

Share your anecdotes on the situation you had and what you did to survive.

[north-north-west]

I've just stayed put and been grateful for having something between me and the rain.
How likely is a lightning strike on a tent, anyway?

[Warin]

You and your tent do not want to be the highest point around.
Lightning tends to strike the high points.

If you feel your hairs standing on end ... that is a prelude to a lightning strike... if possible move to a lower point, if not crouch down - keep feet together for a single point of contact to the ground.

- edit speelin correction.

Last edited by Warin on Sun 12 Jan, 2025 8:21 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Camminata]

My mate and I had lightning over our heads at least its what it felt like, no sleep my undies were brown.

water pooling around our tents , can a strike travel along the ground and zap you???

[Avatar]

AI says:
A tent offers no protection from lightning and is just as likely to be struck as you are.

What to do if you're camping in a thunderstorm
Find shelter: If there's a nearby building or vehicle, run to it. If there isn't, move to a lower area, like a valley or ravine.

Avoid open areas: Stay away from hilltops, ridges, and open fields.
Avoid tall objects: Keep your tent away from isolated trees and other tall objects.
Crouch down: If you're outside or in your tent, crouch down in a ball position with as little of your body touching the ground as possible.
Monitor lightning danger maps: If there are red danger zones approaching your location, move to a safe shelter.

What to avoid
Water, wet items, and metal objects
Pitching your tent on hilltops or flat open areas
Pitching your tent close to isolated trees or other similar objects
Pitching your tent under trees
Lying down in your tent

What to look for
The distance between lightning and thunder
The height of the tallest item in the area

I use a 3mm CCF foam mat under an air mattress and 6mm CCF above.
Is this enough of an electrical insulator from the ground or is crouching in the tent better?
Replies on The Great Outdoors Stack Exchange say crouching is much better. Lying down is the worst position.

[Avatar]

You and your tent do not want to be the highest point around.
Lightening tends to strike the high points.

If you feel your hairs standing on end ... that is a prelude to a lightening strike... if possible move to a lower point, if not crouch down - keep feet together for a single point of contact to the ground.

Sounds like your suggestion is on track with what AI is saying, Warin.

[eggs]

The problem with lying is that a nearby lighting strike creates a voltage potential in the surrounding ground.
So the feet can be at a significantly different voltage to the head - hence the ability to form a current through the body without an actual hit with lightning.
Crouching with feet close together minimises the voltage that can traverse the body from the ground difference.
Cows can get quite a shock between the front and rear legs.

Having said that, I was lying down during a few close strikes [around 1km away].... duh.

[keithj]

So the feet can be at a significantly different voltage to the head - hence the ability to form a current through the body without an actual hit with lightning.
Crouching with feet close together minimises the voltage that can traverse the body from the ground difference.
Cows can get quite a shock between the front and rear legs..

To add....

If there's a lightening stike close by there may be a voltage difference between each leg when you walk, so either shuffle or walk with tiny steps to minimise it. Same for fallen HV cables.

[JohnnoMcJohnno]

I've made it a habit not to camp on the top of a hill or on the ridgeline. But then the only time I've been camped in a violent electrical storm was a fairly wide open and flat area. It was only a brief storm but I was glad when it went because it certainly felt like my tent was the highest object around.

Incidentally, the US Weather Service advises that there is only a 10% chance you will die if struck by lightning - in America at least. The bad news is the other 90% end up with "various degrees of disability" (https://www.weather.gov/safety/lightning-odds). They no longer recommend the crouch position, even as a last resort, because it doesn't provide a significant level of protection. I don't care, I'm either going to crouch or curl up in the foetal position next time I'm camped in a storm.

[Tortoise]

I, unfortunately from this point of view, love camping high on ridges and mountains. The exception is when there's a whiff of a thunderstorm, and I find somewhere lower.

The closest I've come to (edit) lightning was a strike about 30? m away. Hair standing on end, interesting sounds. We were on the summit of Feathertop , watching 2 storm fronts some distance away - and didn't see the third one sneaking up behind us. Crouching seemed the best option, in the tiniest of depressions, in case it made a difference (I'm sure it didn't, but it made me feel like I'd tried). In a panic, a couple of people ran - probably leaving some ground slightly higher than themselves.

If I'm in my tent, I count the seconds. If it suddenly got close, I'd stay there, on the basis that it'd take too long to get anywhere reasonably safer than staying where I was. And I'd crouch, feet together, because it'd make me feel better. Does anyone know why that's no longer recommended?

I confess I haven't got out of my sleeping bag at night to go somewhere else in case it was safer. I do like my cosy bed, especially in storms.

Last edited by Tortoise on Sat 11 Jan, 2025 7:49 pm, edited 3 times in total.

[Warin]

If there's a lightening stike close by there may be a voltage difference between each leg when you walk, so either shuffle or walk with tiny steps to minimise it. Same for fallen HV cables.

HV electricians are taught to hop with feet together like kangaroos if there is the possibility of ground currents. Short hops are better as there is less chance of falling.

AI says:I use a 3mm CCF foam mat under an air mattress and 6mm CCF above.
Is this enough of an electrical insulator from the ground or is crouching in the tent better?

That insulation is not in any way adequate. My work safety shoes were rated for 240 vac ... but in the HV lab you stood behind metal mesh.

[Last]

I was once camped on the crest of the Great Divide in Victoria with 2 friends. We were in a forested area, at the top of the Reefton spur. When we camped it was balmy. Evidently we hadn't read the weather forecast, in the night thunderstorms rolled in. In the morning we were in the tent, looking out the door at the rain, listening to the rumble of thunder around us, contemplating our next move. In no hurry to leave the tent. A bolt of lightning hit a large tree about 30 metres from our tent. A 200 - 250 mm thick bough crashed to the ground (estimate, we didn't measure it). We left. A campsite has never been so quickly packed and abandoned before or since.

[north-north-west]

Lightning, not lightening. Two different words, two different spellings, two different meanings.
I'm really disappointed with some of you.

[rcaffin]

Yeah, lightning.

Wall of hut in Austria on the Via Alpina, "Struck by Lightning".
Cheers
Roger

[Tortoise]

Lightning, not lightening. Two different words, two different spellings, two different meanings.
I'm really disappointed with some of you.

My only excuse is that my brain is scrambled egg at the moment. Mild cognitive impairment perhaps?

[north-north-west]

Lightning, not lightening. Two different words, two different spellings, two different meanings.
I'm really disappointed with some of you.

My only excuse is that my brain is scrambled egg at the moment. Mild cognitive impairment perhaps?

It's been a long day.

[johnw]

Lightning, not lightening. Two different words, two different spellings, two different meanings.
I'm really disappointed with some of you.

So am I, pedants rule!

[Eremophila]

As an aside…. has anyone seen the 1990 film “Struck by Lightning”, starring Garry McDonald?

Not sure how well it would age but it was *&%$#! funny in its day and won an award or two I believe.

[Tortoise]

Lightning, not lightening. Two different words, two different spellings, two different meanings.
I'm really disappointed with some of you.

So am I

Not a patch on how disappointed pedants can be with themselves. But we digress.

[johnw]

Lightning, not lightening. Two different words, two different spellings, two different meanings.
I'm really disappointed with some of you.

So am I

Not a patch on how disappointed pedants can be with themselves. But we digress.

Touche

[Lostsoul]

Just today I was caught in a thunderstorm with lightning close by,paddling from Narcissus to Cynthia Bay.Was on the part crossing the bay,had no where to go and just kept paddling and hoped for the best.The ferry went past us,so that must be lightning proof!

[Aardvark]

i'm still waiting to be enlightened.

[Tortoise]

Just today I was caught in a thunderstorm with lightning close by,paddling from Narcissus to Cynthia Bay.Was on the part crossing the bay,had no where to go and just kept paddling and hoped for the best.

Eek! Glad it missed you.

[Biggles]

I've spent a few wild nights on Feathertop (camping area) and Sealers Cove (Wilsons Prom) in truly frightening electrical storms, but it was nothing to an historical event, the memory of which haunts me of the danger that awaits out in the open.

If you're a mere speck in the wide open spaces with a camera on a tripod, as I was in 2013 on the vast and lonely Mundi Mundi Plain outside Silverton, NSW, beware of the storm. I had driven out onto the Plain to watch and hopefully photograph a typically wild outback thunderstorm; lightning was very active on the horizon. The storm's leading edge, with energetic lightning either side, was about 10-15km away. I thought it was safe to stay there for a few minutes, but...then came the experience: a bluish-purplish tinge (the second occasion I have experienced this, the first being just outside Tennant Creek where I was working in 2011) — St Elmo's Fire is an indicator of a boisterous charge building up very close by. I picked up my tripod, camera bag and dashed 400m back to the car. As the storm moved forward and lightning illuminated the dusk, a profoundly blinding bolt of lightning struck a group of boulders a few metres from where I was standing. This frightening event was recounted at Silverton camping ground, where the manager there, a keen photographer himself, told me that the Plain is the worst place to be with lightning active. The following morning (beautiful, calm and warm, in typical post-storm outback fashion!) I returned and looked at the outcrop of granite — blackened, smouldering and smashed with scorch marks on the earth. The indents from my tripod's spike feet were still clearly visible — and only 7m measured from the rock outcrop to the leftmost tripod leg.

[Avatar]

I've spent a few wild nights on Feathertop (camping area) and Sealers Cove (Wilsons Prom) in truly frightening electrical storms, but it was nothing to an historical event, the memory of which haunts me of the danger that awaits out in the open.

If you're a mere speck in the wide open spaces with a camera on a tripod, as I was in 2013 on the vast and lonely Mundi Mundi Plain outside Silverton, NSW, beware of the storm. I had driven out onto the Plain to watch and hopefully photograph a typically wild outback thunderstorm; lightning was very active on the horizon. The storm's leading edge, with energetic lightning either side, was about 10-15km away. I thought it was safe to stay there for a few minutes, but...then came the experience: a bluish-purplish tinge (the second occasion I have experienced this, the first being just outside Tennant Creek where I was working in 2011) — St Elmo's Fire is an indicator of a boisterous charge building up very close by. I picked up my tripod, camera bag and dashed 400m back to the car. As the storm moved forward and lightning illuminated the dusk, a profoundly blinding bolt of lightning struck a group of boulders a few metres from where I was standing. This frightening event was recounted at Silverton camping ground, where the manager there, a keen photographer himself, told me that the Plain is the worst place to be with lightning active. The following morning (beautiful, calm and warm, in typical post-storm outback fashion!) I returned and looked at the outcrop of granite — blackened, smouldering and smashed with scorch marks on the earth. The indents from my tripod's spike feet were still clearly visible — and only 7m measured from the rock outcrop to the leftmost tripod leg.

Great anecdote. Luck was with you that day. I don't think anyone will have a closer strike story without severe injury.

Sealers is fairly sheltered but the trees would have been of concern.

[Biggles]

Great anecdote. Luck was with you that day. I don't think anyone will have a closer strike story without severe injury.

Sealers is fairly sheltered but the trees would have been of concern.

I can recall well the specific place was a mere speck on the Plain, upon which stands rather incongruously, the 'Red Hill Hotel', a hollow prop that was used in the first Mad Max movie of 1979-80 (and many other commercials), filmed on the Mundi Mundi Plain. The frail and decrepit prop, a rav-fav haunt for photographers, and 80,000 barren and dusty hectares around it, is private property, owned by the Blore family of Belmont Station in Silverton. A photographer in Broken Hill actually runs tours out to it, proceeds split between himself and the Blores.

[north-north-west]

Love the signature line, Biggles.