Where that orange cup is on top of the car battery is where I saw the lightning spark through. I was about the same distance from it as shown in this picture.
There’s something terrifying about things that come out of nowhere that make you really consider your own mortality. A lightning strike five feet from where me and my husband were sitting definitely fits that category.
The very dry hot and dry season has ended in the usual way with occassional usually afternoon thunderstorms. It’s hot and muggy and then the wind picks up and the black clouds come out of nowhere. Being struck by lightning is actully one of my biggest fears, but I was in the covered kitchen area as the storm passed. And then, ZAP! A bolt sparked on the posts on the car battery, which we use to greatly extend the life of the solar panel.
Needless to say this scared both my husband and me enough to run inside and huddle on our metal framed bed until the storm passed. I also have had a very strange electric tingling in my right hand since this happened, which is most prominent when I first open my computer. I don’t believe I was struck even indirectly but the timing of this odd, never before felt in my life sensation leaves the lightning strike as the only likely explanation for it. But that brush with mortality had me looking up odd things, like where is it safest during a thunderstorm? Is our metal roof more attractive, for instance? What about our metal framed bed?
This ABC news article tried to make some sense of it:
But myths about lightning aren't confined to science fiction or ancient mythology. As the modern day saying goes, "lightning never strikes twice."
"It can. It does," said Paul Williams. "And it happened to me."
Williams was 12 when he was first struck by lightning. He was camping with his Boy Scout troop when a thunderstorm blew through their campsite. He was in a tent with another camper when, "before we knew it we were kind of thrown onto the ground." Williams was lucky; the strike wasn't fatal.
So he was in a tent, which isn’t much protection, but still is a covered structure. That’s disquieting.
"It didn't burn us," he said, "but it gave us kind of rubber legs. You couldn't stand up. It just kind of collapsed your legs."
He and his friends recovered quickly, but years later, lightning, it seemed, came looking for him again. He'd been sailing on the Potomac and had docked in calm weather at a friend's house.
"All of a sudden a wind picked up. We were on the porch. And we saw the boat starting to rock. So we knew we had to come down and tie it down," Williams said. "We did not see any lightning or thunder, or we wouldn't have run out there. And it was literally the first bolt that came out of the sky happened to land right between us."
For the second time in his life, Williams was struck by lightning. He blacked out and fell on his back.
"I woke up and all I could see was a gray sky," Williams said, "and it had knocked out my hearing. So everything was completely silent. And I didn't have any feeling in my body. I didn't know what to think. I really didn't know if I was alive or dead."
Williams' friends carried him, dazed, inside the house.
"I couldn't talk," he said. "For several seconds, all the way from the dock into the house, I just kind of was like a rag doll."
His hearing came back but he had blistering burns from his legs to his shoulders. He continues to suffer problems with his short-term memory.
"I have to keep my wallet and my keys in the exact same place or I'll have no idea where they are," he said.”
So what statistically are my best bets in this little bungalow? There’s lots of tall trees around here lightning just struck the high branch of a rubber tree nearby a few weeks ago. I always thought this would provide me some safety from storms here as they are a lot taller than our bungalow.
“According to Uman, your priority in a lightning storm should be to find shelter, preferably a structure with electrical wiring or, even better, a lightning rod.”
Electrical wiring? You mean like a house in which the electricty is working, presumably? Uh uh.
“The lightning bolt will be drawn to the rod or the metal wiring, and will then be conducted through the wiring into the ground, leaving the person inside the structure unscathed.
So are you safest inside your home? Back in the days of candles and gaslights, that wasn't true because most houses were made of wood.
Lightning is drawn to the nearest metal object, so it would often strike people sleeping in their metal-framed beds.
Rest assured, this is no longer the case.
"It doesn't happen anymore because there's enough wiring in the roof of your house," Uman said.”
This was just sounding worse and worse for me. It makes sense now why the lightning was attracted to the wires attached to the car battery. That is attached to our solar panel and is thus the only live wires, ie carrying an electrical current, which we have. This is the type of stuff which anybody living off grid might want to keep note of. Don’t keep your solar powered converter and battery right next to you during a thunderstorm. Maybe don’t sleep on a metal frame if that is the only metal in the area. Of course the metal roof now might be protective if it draws the strike away from the bed with the metal frame.
“Remember, if you're caught in a storm, the safest place to be is inside a building, but be sure to avoid using any plumbing or plugged-in appliances. If you can't get inside, get in a car.”
I’m glad to still be among the living….
Lightning travels through the ground, so you likely received some of that charge. A car would offer protection, but it looks like you traveled by motorcycle. Maybe bring a rubber mat to put under the metal cot frame so it's not touching the ground. There's no way to be completely safe out camping in the wilderness, so checking the weather beforehand is a good idea. The lightning rod suggestion is also a good idea. We lost a 23-yr-old daughter to a lightning strike. She was out in a conservation area when a storm rolled in and the truck was parked about a mile walk away. Peace.
holey crap I am glad you are ok, so glad!! Back when I used to golf (with my parents) I remember getting caught in storms, Michigan, but also pretty lucky so far. Michigan had lots more lightning than Oregon, which I am suprised at still, there being so much more rain here. You might be able to just get a lightning rod to pound into the ground, worth a look at least. I wonder if lightning strikes had anything to do with 'the miracle of life' getting sparked into some pond scum cells and created us? Who knows....the world is electric, even before we came along, eh?