Dealing with Thunderstorms

[Hypno_Guru]

First time hiker doing a ten day section hike from Springer Mountain into North Carolina. I will be starting on Tuesday and just pulled up the weather. Shows thunderstorms throughout the hike.

Other than not hiking or hiking in the earlier part of the day (which I had already planned to do), what advice can you give? Thanks!

[Malto]

Watch the weather and plan breaks in a sheltered location at the height of the storm. ITs rare to have thunderstorms last hours on end. If it's just rain then learn to love hiking in the rain. The thought of being wet is much worse than the reality.

[Tipi Walter]

It's not really how we deal with thunderstorms but how thunderstorms deal with us. Any ridgetop camping and hiking is fraught with difficulties during lightning storms and high winds.

Often times we set up near dusk in clear skies and by midnight we're caught in a hell storm. You have several choices:

** Sit put and pray and wait to die.
** Run away from your shelter and immediately seek lower ground no matter how hard it is raining. (You could get zapped just as easily while on the move).
** Pack up at midnight and do a night hike to lower ground and set up camp.

99% of the time I sit put and pray, option 1. Only twice have I packed up everything and done a night hike far off the mountain. The actual odds of getting hit by lightning are very small.

[MuddyWaters]

The only day that looks like probably sure rain is tuesday with 80%.

IMO, anything less may not occur. 40-60%, is almost 50-50 chance of no rain.

Weather forecasts have a rain bias. People are much happier if the forecast call for rain and it doesnt, than if the forecast calls for no rain, and it does and ruins their plans.



So go, and dont worry about it.

If it rains, you just keep hiking. If it thunderstorms you ride it out for a few hrs in a shelter when you reach one.

Unless forecast is 90-100% severe thunderstorms...its hikin weather. Ive hiked many weeks with forecast calling for 60% thunderstorms every day, and only had a couple hrs of rain on one day.

And...water may be plentiful if it do rain.

[middle to middle]

Worst case: I recall thunder rain lightening ankle deep water on trail and being in lightening cloud and lightening everywhere and I lived to tell the tale.

[Shutterbug]

First time hiker doing a ten day section hike from Springer Mountain into North Carolina. I will be starting on Tuesday and just pulled up the weather. Shows thunderstorms throughout the hike.

Other than not hiking or hiking in the earlier part of the day (which I had already planned to do), what advice can you give? Thanks!

There are three different issues with thunderstorms: lightening, wind & rain.

Lightening -- While the chances of being struck by lightening are low, there are things you can do to decrease the probabilities. Get off of high places. If you are on a ridge, leave the ridge. Don't seek shelter under trees that are higher than the surroundings. Don't pitch your tent close to a tall tree. The idea is to make sure you are not part of the path of least resistance from the cloud to ground.

Wind -- I don't have any statistics, but I would guess that more people are hurt by falling branches than by lightening. Whether or not a thunderstorm is in the forecast look above and around your tent. Don't place your tent where a limb might fall on it. If you hammock, pay special attention to the trees you tie to. Don't tie to one that might be blown down in a thunder storm.

Also, if thunderstorms are in the forecast put extra tie outs on your tent. Just stakes won't hold a tent down in strong wind.

Rain -- Sometimes, thunderstorms can drop a lot of water. Take that into account when you select a place for your tent. Don't pitch your tent where water will pond.

It has been my experience that most thunderstorms come during the night. I love to hear the wind in the trees and the rain beating down on my tent. It is an experience to be valued, not feared.

[bigcranky]

T-storms are a fact of life in the South in the summer. You'll hear them in the distance every day, and get hit by one every few days. We try to be done hiking by 4 or 5pm so we're not walking in the storm. But there's not much you can do but get wet and try not to be up high in the lightning.

Really, don't worry too much about it.

[MuddyWaters]

It has been my experience that most thunderstorms come during the night. I love to hear the wind in the trees and the rain beating down on my tent. It is an experience to be valued, not feared.

Me too, as long as in a small clearing or such with no limbs to fall on me. If forced to camp under trees, especially leafless ones where you cant tell whats dead and what aint, ...not so much.

[BonBon]

I was nearly hit by lightning -it was an indirect hit- coming down the ridge on Mt Killington last year. My poles flew from my hands, I felt the electricity coursing through me and I ended up with blistering burns anywhere my pack touched me and little broken blood vessels on my body- as well as ears that are still ringing today from the boom. I was very very lucky that day. Before that, I was a little too nonchalant about lightning. Not anymore. I won't camp on a ridge if rain is in the forecast and I seek shelter if a storm with lightning blows in. To some extent- you just have to roll with it though. You may not be near shelter. Don't camp under the tallest tree-check for limbs hanging over you. And as I learned, if the trail is a torrent of running water in the lightning storm, get off of it.

[Abi]

Storms in NC have been crazy and unpredictable lately, at least when they arrive in the Piedmont from the west. The blue dot was me in a marble-sized hail storm. Thirty minutes later I talked to a hiker who was dry and sunny the whole time. After throwing on my poncho I ran for a large downed tree that provided enough cover to stand under.

image.jpg

[Turtle-2013]

https://www.nps.gov/grte/learn/news/...ease-12-11.htm

I KNOW this is a story is from out west, and a few years back ... but it illustrates that where you are during the storm can really make a difference ... because I have a personal connection to the story I happen to know that most of the 17 involved did not have direct lightening strikes. Rather, there is so much iron in the rock on Grand Teton that just touching the ground when the lightening strikes anywhere on the mountain was enough to cause temporary paralysis in some of those on the mountain. I also know that while the rescue team was on the mountain carrying out the rescue, a second storm passed over. The team sheltered under overhangs of rock and sat on their packs to insulate them from the rock. After it passed and the helicopters starting flying again they completed the rescues. All but one were rescued ... and he was literally "blown" off the mountain by a lightening strike.

[Captain Blue]

First - Don't worry about "lightening". This is what gals do to their hair. Google it. There is another definition that has something to do with pregnancy and a uterus. This stuff won't hurt you on the trail.

Second - Be very concerned with "lightning". I know. I was struck by lightning on the AT in New York in 2015. It's not fun. I'm here to tell about it. There is no safe place outside when lighting is present. Google it. All the wisdom says to go inside when you see lightning.

One bit of advice: If you are outside of your health insurance network and plan to get struck by lightning then get pre-approved for it. Otherwise they will deny your claims. This happened to me. It took months to straighten out. I'm not sure how they handle claims for "lightening".

[rocketsocks]

First - Don't worry about "lightening". This is what gals do to their hair. Google it. There is another definition that has something to do with pregnancy and a uterus. This stuff won't hurt you on the trail.

Second - Be very concerned with "lightning". I know. I was struck by lightning on the AT in New York in 2015. It's not fun. I'm here to tell about it. There is no safe place outside when lighting is present. Google it. All the wisdom says to go inside when you see lightning.

One bit of advice: If you are outside of your health insurance network and plan to get struck by lightning then get pre-approved for it. Otherwise they will deny your claims. This happened to me. It took months to straighten out. I'm not sure how they handle claims for "lightening".

yup, those acts of gawd really stick it in and break it off, no!

[Bronk]

Rain is just part of the experience. I've never understood people who cancel a trip because its going to rain. Just take good rain gear and plan to get wet. If you wait for perfect weather you'll probably only go hiking on rare occasions. Having adequate clothing and equipment is key to having a good time on a rainy trip. I can hike all day in the rain if I know I've got some dry clothes wrapped in plastic inside my pack and have a tent that doesn't leak to climb into at the end of the day. On the other hand, if you get to camp and its still raining and you have puddles on the floor of your tent and not one piece of dry clothing and your sleeping bag is getting wet, you're not going to be having any fun.

[daddytwosticks]

At this time of year in this area, they are usually hit or miss in the afternoons. I hike with a poncho. When the downpour starts, I find a seat on a log and sit out the brief storm safe and dry under my poncho. Using this technique, you will mostly stay dry. When you start back off hiking, the trail will still probably be a creek, with all the storm runoff, so your feet will get wet.

It's the storms in the evening that worry me. Sometimes these can last for several hours. I usually sleep in shelters in the warmer months, so I stay dry.

[JumpMaster Blaster]

Storms in NC have been crazy and unpredictable lately, at least when they arrive in the Piedmont from the west. The blue dot was me in a marble-sized hail storm. Thirty minutes later I talked to a hiker who was dry and sunny the whole time. After throwing on my poncho I ran for a large downed tree that provided enough cover to stand under.

image.jpg

Uwharrie! My back yard!

[JumpMaster Blaster]

I was inundated by rain 3 days in a row this past weekend. Forecast every day was for 70% chance of rain. Every day was a new "hazardous weather outlook". Every day, at different times, I was drenched. Once at 8pm, once at midnight, once at 5pm, a torrential downpour at 7:30 am just as I was about to pack up my tent, then again at 1 pm. The sky was sunny, partly cloudy, rainy, windy, sunny, partly cloudy, rainy, windy. I knew I was going to be wet, and after day 2 I wholeheartedly accepted it.

Day 3 I packed up my tent in a downpour and set off on the trail. Yeah, I was pissed, but what was I going to do? Had I gone down to the shelter and sat it out, I would have been caught in the afternoon storm (I got to the hostel right before it started raining again).

This past week has been nuts as far as rain & thunderstorm chances between Erwin & Damascus. Make sure you look UP for widowmakers and DOWN for areas that may pool runoff. My last night was a wild thunderstorm around midnight. A tree came down about 1000 feet down the trail from where I was camping. Needless to say, I did what Tipi Walter said- hang on and pray.

[la.lindsey]

I'm generally in the "just get wet" camp. I did a 25 mile day where it just rained the entire day. Last weekend it rained the last two days straight of the section. It's fine; wet shoe blisters don't hurt and burts bees rescue ointment prevents thought chafing in shorts.

Yesterday, though, was my first truly terrifying straight-line-wind storm. I hid under a rock and managed to get a text out-- I had some crazy hiker guy check the weather for me. He told me to run the last 4.7 miles to a hostel so I did. I think the timing was right; I was on the tail edge of the storm and then the very beginning of the next one, so I mostly just had to dodge already downed trees and not look for falling ones. But the whole time I kept looking for rocks that I could take cover under if it got any worse.

I am also lucky in that I know how fast I can go, and I can push it even faster if I need to. I *know* that I can hike 3 mph sustained anywhere in VA, NC, TN, or GA. (So did the dude who told me to go.) that's helpful information when you're trying to decide if you should make a run for it or stay put.

I got in a great workout, made it down to the hostel (well, Kincora had sustained some damage in the storm, so I went to Black Bear, which had no power but did have Powerade and a dry towel) and got an even better workout the next day throwing branches off the trail. My arms are looking fierce.


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[Hikingjim]

If t-storms are "possible" in a given day, I just know my safe and unsafe spots on my route and I make sure I don't camp somewhere dumb (if possible!)
most of the time it's not an issue.

If the day is 90% chance of biblical storms, then just go to a hostel or something.

[Connie]

I don't know that this is relevant here: do hills and small mountains and high mountains all have this in common?

There is the ground potential that runs high, during a lightning storm.

It travels along the ground, so as a mountainclimber, I was taught do not lie down on the ground, do not get under an overhand or outcrop (to provide a shorter path) and get all metal far from you and crouch on your dry-bag climbing rope or backpack in a place where you are not the tallest object.

If I hear thunder, I am in full "alert mode" to get optimize my chances.

If in the forecast, that is a "zero day" or a "near-o" day: I just don't mess with it.

Lightning storms are beautiful, freshen the air with oxygen, and so, are refreshing in hot humid weather, and are best enjoyed experienced with relative safety.

I would rather be outdoors, after the lightning storm.