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woodsy
07-22-2008, 10:36
12 people affected by lightning between Maine and Mass. over the last week and 2 of the people were killed.
I put the story (http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/5253646.html) in this category because it mentions a man killed by lightning in Baxter park last year.
Just a reminder to keep you lightning safety skills in tune.

Jim Adams
07-22-2008, 11:05
the closest (that I know) that I have come to being killed was with lightening just outside of Salsbury, Conn. in 1990. very freaky!

geek

woodsy
07-22-2008, 11:39
If I recall correctly, the man killed in Baxter last year was down off the mountain in one of the campgrounds in his tent when the lightning struck very nearby.

Sly
07-22-2008, 11:43
I remember a story of a guy in Utah getting hit at a certain altitude, dropping 1500' and getting hit again. I guess he was OK physically but it's got to do a number mentally.

saimyoji
07-22-2008, 11:51
I remember a story of a guy in Utah getting hit at a certain altitude, dropping 1500' and getting hit again. I guess he was OK physically but it's got to do a number mentally.

What are the odds of that? :eek:

Sly
07-22-2008, 11:57
What are the odds of that? :eek:

A gazillion to one. Tried Google but couldn't find the story. Here's another about a couple getting knocked off their feet twice near Whitney


Nonetheless, as noted in Hikers Walking Into Lightning Storm. SomeoneTell Me Why! (http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/22065), people often ignore the warning signs of lightning and wait too long to turn back. It is too easy to rationalize that the probability of getting "hit" by lightning is low and ignore the fact that different conditions have different risk levels and that lightning has collateral effects. (Lightning contains a lot of electromagnetic energy that can be received by AM radios many miles away from the source, in addition to the near field effects). A year or two ago there was a report on the message board of a traumatic experience where a couple was knocked off their feet twice by lightning on their way back to Trail Crest on their first (and last) hike up the trail. In the right conditions, lightning can and will strike the same location twice. Remember, probability is only a model, and, "A model is just an imitation of the real thing."

Marta
07-22-2008, 12:10
On NPR recently, I heard part of an interview with the author of:

http://www.amazon.com/Out-Blue-Lightning-Superstition-Survival/dp/0385341156/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216742899&sr=1-1

It sounded pretty interesting. I'm not sure if reading it would be any smarter than reading a lot of books about bears, or snakes, but I might do it anyway.

woodsy
07-22-2008, 12:22
Slogger' told of a harrowing experience with lightning while crossing the exposed Saddleback Range last summer, they saw sparks flying as the lightning struck around them, or something like that, sounded pretty scary!

Mags
07-22-2008, 12:54
My worse experience with lightening was during trail work.

I was working near tree line. I could see the lightening hit a ridge less than a mile away. And I was surrounded by piles of metal tools.

Fun times.

(We scooted down the mountain when we saw clouds coming, but the storm came in quickly).

rafe
07-22-2008, 13:03
I love a good lightning storm -- from a safe distance. Somewhat freakish weather here in eastern MA these last few weeks. Almost every day we get one of these very violent thunderstorms. The sky turns black and it looks like the end of the world. They're usually over in five minutes or less. Usually afternoon, but once or twice at night. Five folks in the ICU in Boston from a lightning strike this weekend. They were standing under a tree that was struck.

EAnderson
07-22-2008, 23:01
I was riding through Franconia Notch Friday afternoon during a bad storm and saw a hugh strike on top of Mt. Lafayette. I sure hope there were no hikers on the ridge caught in the storm. Earlier that morning I got chased down Ethan Pond to 302 in a boomer. Heard the thunder all morning from Zealand, but it finally caught me by the shelter. First bolt of lightning, and I ran down the trail!

Tinker
07-22-2008, 23:42
On Signal Ridge on Mt. Carrigan in N.H., I had to force myself to go to sleep while solo hiking in my little North Face Mayfly (1986) tent. It was strange to think that I could will myself to sleep in the middle of a violent lightning storm, but, I reasoned that if I got hit while asleep, I probably wouldn't feel a thing. Next morning, I awoke to the sight of a couple of snowshoe hairs enjoying the newly watered grass in front of my tent. Wonderful!

jaywalke
07-23-2008, 07:49
On my first section, a fast-moving storm caught me on a ridge and taught me things I didn't want to know, such as: lightning strikes smell like copper, and up close the bolts look 6-10' wide.

rsmall
07-23-2008, 10:13
On July 19, 2005 during my thru I was hiking south of Rainbow Stream Lean-to when I heard thunder in the distance. I was ready to stop for the day and looked around for a flat open spot. I finally found a good space near Crescent Pond about 150 feet off the trail and began setting up my tent. The lightning was hitting all around and I got into the tent while a strong wind was trying to blow me down an adjacent slope. I grabbed the aluminum tent frame and held on to it in an attempt to keep everything in position.

Suddenly there was a brilliant flash of light, a loud boom with the strong concussion of a grenade and a buzz through my body. I lay there stunned for several seconds and said a brief prayer of thanks that I was OK. Lightning had hit very close by and the charge travelled through the wet rock on which the tent was erected and up through the tent frame and into my arm. Whew!

Later I was thinking about it and realized that hiking alone and off the trail was not a good situation for getting assistance. Made me think I was very lucky.

woodsy
07-24-2008, 07:24
I'm sure most seasoned recreational outdoor enthusiasts are familiar with lightning safety and procedures in the event of T-storms.
For those new to outdoors recreation like hiking, where there is no enclosed shelter nearby, there are some good tips and info here in this brief article from the National Lightning Safety Institute. (http://www.lightningsafety.com/nlsi_pls/ploutdoor.htm)
Map (http://www.lightningsafety.com/nlsi_lls/fatalities_us.html) shows states and number of deaths attributed to lightning strikes over 13 yr. period.

More interesting stats from NLSI:

ABSTRACT

Lightning-related fatality, injury, and damage reports in the US were summarized for 36 years since 1959, based on the NOAA publication Storm Data. There were 3239 deaths, 9818 injuries, and 19,814 property-damage reports from lightning during this period. The number of lightning-caused casualty and damage events was less variable from year to year than other weather causes. For this reason, lightning is the most constant and widespread threat to people and property during the thunderstorm season.
By state, Florida led the nation in the actual number of deaths and injuries, while the largest number of damage reports came from Pennsylvania. There were large variations among decades in casualties and damages. When population was taken into account, New Mexico (all decades) and Wyoming (mainly in the 1960s and 1970s) led the nation in death, injury, and casualty rates. High casualty rates tended to be in Florida, the Rocky Mountains, plains, southeast, and New England. The highest rates of population-weighted damage reports were on the plains.
By month, all types of lightning reports in Storm Data reached maxima during July. Damage reports were spread more evenly through the year than were casualties. Casualties and damages in northern regions of the US had narrower distributions centered on summer than southern regions.
Within the day, two-thirds of the casualties occurred between noon and 6 p.m. There were relatively frequent damage reports during the night in the plains and midwest states. In winter, the afternoon peak disappeared for damage reports and was weak for casualties. Casualties were most frequent on Sunday, the next most common day was Saturday, then Wednesday. Damage reports were most frequent on Monday, then decreased on nearly every day until reaching the lowest number on Saturday.
Most incidents involved one person. For incidents involving deaths only, 91% of the cases had one fatality, while another 8% of the events had two people killed in the same incident. For incidents involving injuries only, 68% of the cases had one injury; casualties clustered nearly the same as injuries. Males were killed by lightning 5.6 times as often as females, and were 4.9 times as likely to be injured as females.
The digital Storm Data listing of the locations of victims is not very precise. Of the known locations, recreation was the largest category in every region and in the US. The next largest group involved people located under trees, and the next was related to the proximity to bodies of water. The remaining categories involving small numbers of people were golfers, people involved in agricultural activities, telephones users, and people in proximity to radios and antennas.
Half of all lightning-caused damage costs were between $5,000 and $50,000 according to Storm Data. Comparison with other datasets shows that Storm Data entries tend to include more expensive widely-known events and to exclude most of the small losses.

Wise Old Owl
07-29-2008, 14:23
On July 19, 2005 during my thru I was hiking south of Rainbow Stream Lean-to when I heard thunder in the distance. I was ready to stop for the day and looked around for a flat open spot. I finally found a good space near Crescent Pond about 150 feet off the trail and began setting up my tent. The lightning was hitting all around and I got into the tent while a strong wind was trying to blow me down an adjacent slope. I grabbed the aluminum tent frame and held on to it in an attempt to keep everything in position.

Suddenly there was a brilliant flash of light, a loud boom with the strong concussion of a grenade and a buzz through my body. I lay there stunned for several seconds and said a brief prayer of thanks that I was OK. Lightning had hit very close by and the charge travelled through the wet rock on which the tent was erected and up through the tent frame and into my arm. Whew!

Later I was thinking about it and realized that hiking alone and off the trail was not a good situation for getting assistance. Made me think I was very lucky.

Holding the pole up wasn't a good idea, some are full of carbon graphite and can conduct a charge, you were very lucky!

Old Hillwalker
07-29-2008, 14:52
Last July a visiting lady friend from Virginia and I were doing a two car loop up from Kinsman Notch via Beaver Brook trail, over da Moose and down Gorge Brook trail to her car at Ravine Lodge. Just below the treeline on the north side of the mountain we were encountering rain and hail with thunder approaching so we retreated back down into the woods right where the Benton trail comes in. We took off our packs and stood there waiting for the storm to pass then, wham I saw sparks by my grounded pack and then we were knocked off our feet. Both of our feet were numb to about mid calf. In a few minutes of sitting there our feet lost their numbness and the storm passed. We then continued up to the summit, passing a section of the trail about a hundred feet from us that looked like it had been freshly plowed. Standing about fifteen feet off to the left of the trail was a fir tree that had been stripped of its bark and splintered. One of the splinters now resides on my mantle piece. I've heard it said that being struck by lightning gives one special powers...I'm still waiting to see what they are;)

Wise Old Owl
07-29-2008, 14:58
Hillwalker - the special power is knowing how to avoid that in the future!

drastic_quench
07-29-2008, 16:15
Good lord. I'm sure I'll be the resident pedant here, but the word is lightning, not lightening. The title of the thread is correct, but then there are about dozen incorrect instances. It hurts my brain.

Kerosene
07-29-2008, 16:22
1) Atop Camels Hump on the LT in northern Vermont (August 1979): A few hikers staying at the old cabin north of the summit hiked up to see the sun set. A T-storm blew in from over Lake Champlain and along Bolton Valley below us. We could see the lightning starting from the base of the clounds below us and striking the valley below. As it approached, we scampered back below treeline to the cabin.

2) In October 1999, I finally decided to try to get back into backpacking. There's only one trail of any reasonable length in southeast Michigan, the 37-mile Waterloo-Pinckney Trail, and in mid-October there was no one on the trail except me and a few hunters. The morning of the second day I broke camp with thunder in the far distance. Sure enough, a torrential downpour hit just before I got to the ranger station and shelter. I waited out the hard rain for half an hour before pushing on, but 20 minutes later a series of lightning strikes surrounded me as I was walking through the forest. There was no where to go so I just threw away my pack and crouched to let the storm pass.

3) Climbing Mt. Moosilaukee from the north, less than a mile below the trail intersection that Hillwalker mentions above (Sept. 2006). We had driven through isolated T-storms on our way up I-91 to Glencliff, where I headed out at 2:45 to meet Hikerhead and DebW at Beaver Brook Shelter 8 miles up and over The Moose. I heard the storm in the distance, getting closer as I gained elevation. The lightning hits kept getting closer, until one hit, probably a tree, within a tenth of a mile of me. Again, nowhere to go except throw away the poles and crouch. The storm passed over the summit, and fortunately I was able to cross over without incident and before it go too dark to see in the blowing mist.

Mags
07-29-2008, 16:28
Good lord. I'm sure I'll be the resident pedant here, but the word is lightning, not lightening. The title of the thread is correct, but then there are about dozen incorrect instances. It hurts my brain.

Your brain is apparently easily affected. :)

woodsy
07-29-2008, 17:01
Good lord. I'm sure I'll be the resident pedant here, but the word is lightning, not lightening. The title of the thread is correct, but then there are about dozen incorrect instances. It hurts my brain.
Hmmmmm, only see it misspelled a couple times in all of the posts,
lighten up will ya :D
Back to the regular program
Thanks all for sharing your tales of close calls
The one I remember the most was tent camping on Flagstaff Lake next to the Bigelow Range.
Had wife and young son with me. During the night, a tremendous light and sound show moved in overhead. The sound of the thunder bouncing off the mountain was amplified and the view of the lake was bright.
We all survived but wife and son have never been camping with me since. :confused:

Homer&Marje
07-29-2008, 19:32
Just got back from NH and we dealt with some wild lighting on our second night at Guyot Campsite at 4k, shook the platform, and with all the widowmakers and blowdowns that we saw believe me we were nervous. I was almost struck about 4 years ago standing on my mothers screened in porch in her old house, struck the tree in the front yard that's roots had grown out around an old christmas lighting wire that ran into our basement via a conduit box that was 10 ft from where i was standing. I am 230 lbs and was lifted off of my feet and landed 4 ft back, whether it was the shockwave from the lightning or me almost s'ing my pants... it was scary.

OregonHiker
07-29-2008, 20:37
My worse experience with lightening was during trail work.

I was working near tree line. I could see the lightening hit a ridge less than a mile away. And I was surrounded by piles of metal tools.

Fun times.

(We scooted down the mountain when we saw clouds coming, but the storm came in quickly).

Lightning struck a tree 150' away from us at Philmont, NM

Tin Man
07-30-2008, 07:46
We were doing an 18 hole hike a couple of years ago when a storm came, the siren sounded and we retreated to the cart barn. Some muldoon decided to take his sticks back to the car and there he was trunk open, umbrella in had, and "crack", he was knocked on his butt. He got up and came back in the shed. Doc checked him and said he was fine ... and very lucky.

buz
07-30-2008, 09:17
Same at Philmont, coupla weeks ago. We were in valley camp between two good sized hills. Storm moves in very quickly over the ridge. Still sunny and no rain or previous lightning. WHAM, BOOM, simultaneously. Big Ponderosa pine less than 100 feet away, smashed with full bolt force. It was on the other side of the creek, which I think kept the effect on the ground away. We scattered, and got into low positions, and nothing else happened. But the tree was a very vivid reminder to the scouts of the power unleashed, no doubt.

Plodderman
07-31-2008, 13:55
Last two times in the Smokies had lightening problems while at high elevations. I like storms but man you have never experienced one until you are caught by surprise at high elevations.