Kitchen Garden Forum

Could someone settle an argument I'm having with myself? I am pathologiaclly afraid of being struck by lightning, which is a problem as my market garden has very little shelter apart from an old ash tree (scouts tell me not to go there) or my polytunnels. I am convinced the tunnels are not a good plan as surely the steel frame will attract the lightning then the plastci would melt all over me. Am I wrong, or just ridiculously paranoid?

Watch later and see me drive my poor car up a muddy field to shut up the chickens so I can spned the minimum time outside with all the thunder about!

Hello Fen
By far the safest place to be in a thunderstorm is in a car!

John

hi fen, the kitten just ran accross the keyboard as i was about to hit the submit button and wiped what ive just typed it went something like..... count the seconds between the flash and the bang every second is a mile between you and the storm. if you are really worried why not plant a scaffold pole on your plot (tell the neighbours its a flagpole) any lightning that would have hit the plot will then have the flagpole. incidentally my father has had a 20 foot plus metal flagpole stuck up for the last 5 years or so and its not been struck yet .

My father got struck standing in the scullery washing soil off plant roots.

He did not want to leave some plants when moving house.

Happily for me, as it predated my birth by some twelve years, he was wearing wellingtons and the tap was on, so the lightning followed the water pipe and drain.

peter wrote:My father got struck standing in the scullery washing soil off plant roots.

He did not want to leave some plants when moving house.

Happily for me, as it predated my birth by some twelve years, he was wearing wellingtons and the tap was on, so the lightning followed the water pipe and drain.

I hope he didn't take it personally!

fen not fen wrote: I am pathologiaclly afraid of being struck by lightning,

I'm certainly no expert in the field of lighning. (The almost forgotten scientist Tesla is / was probably the worlds greatest authority on this)

Anyway, what little I know is:-

Lightning will always find the easiest route to earth, which means the lowest resistance, which (As mentioned above)is usually something metal.

If no 'good' earths about it may hit a tree. So don't stand under one in a storm.

Have a look round and see if there are any pylons in your vicinity, if so you are relatively safe 'cos they are good lightning conductors.

Statistically you are millions of times more likely to die from a road traffic accident than from being hit by lightning.

I had heard that the centre of the faurway on golf course is a bad place to be. Not cos its exposed, but cos the irrigation system tends to run up the middle and is a better earth.