Lightning Shelters - Which Buildings are Safest in a Storm
In a week when the UK is experiencing a series of storms, heavy rainfall, thunder and lightning, we take a look on the buildings that are built to protect us. When we are young we generally think that thunder, lightning, heavy rain and strong winds are an exciting event and a spectacle to behold but as you begin your adult life, and the responsibilities of property ownership and parenthood suddenly priorities change, and the odd lightning storm becomes a nervous anticipation of counting the seconds between the thunder and lightning and heading below stairs or into doorways when the power fails!
The simplest form of protection is a lightning conductor, these are basically tall (Franklin) rods or a series of metal (Faraday) cages which are attached to high buildings or structures, and in the event of a strike, the supercharge of electricity is collected by the rod or cage, and conducted along a specially protected cable safely to the earth below. It is unusual to find these in domestic house situations, but commonplace in larger public and commercial structures, telephone masts and church steeples being good examples.
For the more extreme areas vulnerable to lightning, such as remote construction and mining areas, it is possible to order a lightning shelter, which is basically a metal box protected by a faraday cage, probably the last place that you would think to be in the case of an electric storm.
Or maybe a portable tent with lightning protection, once again we are not sure how safe you might feel in an electric storm in this externally framed tensile fabric structure.
It seems also that you are not safe from lightning strikes in a cave, as there might be iron on the rock formation, so don't be fooled that this might be a safe haven. Our advice would be to Stay off corded phones, computers and other electrical equipment that put you in direct contact with electricity. Avoid plumbing, including sinks, baths and radiators. Stay away from windows and doors. Do not lie on concrete floors, and do not lean against concrete walls, which more often than not contain steel reinforcement. To be fair, in England the British Medical Journal places the chance of being struck by lightning at one in 10 million, in comparison to winning the national lottery jackpot which is one in 45 Million, not sure which one would be more shocking !
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