the Aspen Ranger District of the White River National Forest has guidelines for what to do in a thunderstorm? They stress that they are only guidelines since lightning can be very inconsistent. The guidelines are:
In a thunderstorm
- Take cover indoors whenever possible
- Stay out of doorways and away from windows with aluminum frames
- Avoid trees. Lightning often hits trees, travels down the trunk and may explode the bark. The charge then spreads out on the ground.
- Go to a low lying area; brush is better than trees because it has "dispersed streamers", which do not act as lightning rods. Stay off the ridges and peaks of mountains, roofs, or towers of buildings.
- Take cover in a metal topped vehicle when it's not possible to go inside a building. Do not touch any metal parts of the vehicle. The rubber tires do not provide protection from lightning (nor do rubber soled shoes).
- Turn off your electronic devices (radios, microwaves, televisions) and avoid actions that would generate static.
- Use surge protectors on electrical devices.
- Make your body a single point on the ground by putting your ankles and knees together and then crouching down. This posture lessens your chances of being a lightening rod and having a charge enter one foot from the ground, travel through your vital organs and exiting through your other foot. Another suggested position is to drop to your knees and bend forward, putting your hands on your knees. Do not lie flat on the ground because electrical current from a strike can easily travel through your vital organs this way.
- Get away from other people. This will lessen the target size.
- Get away from rocks and boulder fields. If you are hiking or camping get off the rocks. Lightning tends to travel the route of least resistance, and water is a great conductor from the ground to the sky (our bodies are 70% water, as are trees.) Rocks hold very little water so your body would become the conductor.
