Diving and lightning

TexasMike · Jun 27, 2001

This got mentioned in our "Clear Springs" thread, but wanted to bring it back to the general discussion area....

Anyone know how dangerous it is to dive in a large body of water when the chance of lightning strikes exist? I remember be chased out of the swimming pool but I don't remember anyone discussing the danger level for divers.

Any thoughts or concrete information?

Warhammer · Jun 27, 2001

Personally, I'd be heading for cover when the lightning started. But in reality, I don't believe lightning travels very far in water, someone correct me if I'm wrong, so unless you had a strike close to you, you'd be ok.

herman · Jun 27, 2001

Interesting question. I suspect you are probably fairly safe under the water as any strike would tend to raise the potentional of all of the surrounding water at the same time and it would also raise you to the same potential as well, same effect as when birds sit on high voltage transmission lines. Given the option, I agree with Warhammer, I would get out but if my choices were under the water or on the surface, I think I would stay under, no since being a lighting rod.

Starfish · Jun 27, 2001

I got this from another board:

http://newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/wea00/wea00043.htm

Question - If lightening strikes water, what happens to the fish? Do the ones just near the surface die, or only the ones near where the lightening struck....or do they all die...or are they all ok?

Certainly some of the fish die near the lightning strike point. However, it is hard to say how large an area of the water is affected as the energy in a lightning flash can vary over a factor of 10. Because water is a good conductor of electrical energy, the horizontal distance that the lightning energy would travel along the water surface could be large. If I were in a metal boat within a hundred feet of a lightning strike, I would probably get a pretty good shock if I had my bare hand on the boat. The depth of water affected also depends on the amount of energy in the stroke.

David Cook
lightning researcher
Argonne National Laboratory
=========================================================

jon · Jun 27, 2001

A number of years ago, some friends and I were diving in a lake around twilight when a severe lightning storm rolled in out of the blue. Since we had plenty of dive time left we decided it was probably better to stay down for a while and see if it would move off as quickly as it came in instead of heading up to the boat. We all got negative and sat back to watch the show. I've got to say that that was one of my most memorable dives ever. It was a truly magical experience. It seemed like staying down was safer than heading up, since the boat was the highest point in the area, and shore was pretty far away.

-Jon

100days-a-year · Jun 27, 2001

My wife noticed these strange flashes in the spring where she was getting certified.We thought it was someones strobe.When we surfaced we found ourselves in one of FLAs famous thunderstorms.FYI according to the research done here people in the water or boats are the #2 in fatalities from lightning behind people under trees.I couldn't tell you how deep to stay ,but in FLA it's an accepted risk during the summer that a storm may pop up.

greg somers · Jun 27, 2001

I was out on a training dive off of a beach when the weather got wet with a major summer downpour.Straight up and down stuff.We just got out of the water and had pulled our gear off and a big bolt of lightning came down and hit the exact spot we were 5 minutes before.I may have been alright but I was glad not to be out there.It made for a great conversation piece..heheheh.
Cheers All Ears,
Gasman

dsquid · Jun 28, 2001

Interestingly enough we ran for the water when thunderstorms started rolling in on a recent quarry training dive... Didn't want the "pool" to be closed before we got the dive in...

Bill B

TwoBitTxn · Jun 28, 2001

I was a life guard in Houston for a few years and I was at a pool that got hit. The chainlink fence started humming just before the pool got popped and all my hair stood up. One of the female guards looked hilarious with that classic comic frightened look. It blew out the pump motor and rattled our ears good but no one was in the water at the time so no one was hurt. I am also an avid fisherman so any time a storm starts moving my way I'm headed for the dock. I prefer to sit under some cover when things get electrical.

Tom

jmsdiver · Jun 29, 2001

A few years back I was involved in helping with a scuba class, a night dive. As we were exiting the water, I heard others around us saying that a couple of bolts of lightning had struck the far side of the lake and wondered if we felt anything. It was too far away for us to notice, but the next day I was talking with some other divers from the far side of the lake stating that they felt a "9 volt-like shock" underwater. Seems to me that if it's storming like that, it's best to stay out of the water. The storm snuck up on us, we had already been in the water for 30 minutes prior to learning of the storm. Besides, aren't we just walking/swimming lightning rods?

Diving and lightning

Please register or login

TexasMike

Contributor

Warhammer

Guest

herman

Contributor

Starfish

Contributor

jon

Guest

100days-a-year

Contributor

greg somers

Guest

dsquid

Contributor

TwoBitTxn

ScubaBoard Supporter

jmsdiver

Contributor

Similar threads