Chat & Social > The Bar - General Chat
Driving when lightning's around
luffy:
Driving home last night in the heavy rain and thunder and lightning got me thinking as to what would happen if my cb aerial was hit by a lightning strike.
Some of the strikes seemed to be pretty close so I stopped and removed it but what would've happened if it had been hit?
I guess the aerial and cb unit would've been frazzled but would it have damaged the LR as well (and more to the point me)?
Bob696:
not sure anything would happen. There would be no direct path to a true earth. Planes get hit by lightning frequently and it just flows around them rather than through them.
Of course I am probably completly wrong.
littlepow:
Top gear tried to fry a polo with a huge bolt of electricity. Nothing happened, even with the engine running.
The tyres prevented the vehicle getting damage, and the body shell acted as a cage preventing internal damage. Although if your driving the shock will probably have other effects!
luffy:
It's good to know that I should have been ok (apart from shock). Some of the lightning forks were huge and very close-by.
Reaper:
You are safe inside a vehicle as long as its made of metal and not a soft top, the tyres are not the reason you are protected. air is an insulator allmost as good as rubber and seeing as the lightning bolt has just travelled possibly 2 miles throught it car tyres are not going to be much help, infact the tyres would need to be about a mile thick to insulate the vehicle. As for thr real protection it's not produced by the Faraday cage effect as you would expect but by an process known as the skin effect.
this allows you to touch the inside of the vehicles metal frame while it is being struck without getting a shock.
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