Lightning Radius in Body of Water

I've always wondered if say you were at a beach, and lightning struck the water what would the impact of the strike be and far would it reach?

I believe it travels on the surface of the water only, and it can extend for a fair distance, like about a hundred feet in fresh water and less in salt water. Water is actually a somewhat poor conductor, and since it radiates out in all directions, it dissipates pretty rapidly.

I am not sure what you mean by the impact of the strike? If you mean can it kill, then yes. I worked with a gentleman who was struck while removing a sailboat from the water (it struck the mast). Three of his friends were killed by the strike, and he was the only survivor.


[edit on 4/9/2007 by defcon5]

I was thinking say 20 people are all at the beach 5-10 meters away from each other and lightening strikes the water in the middle of of the people. Would these people die? or be hurt?

Some would most likely die, some might survive. At that point it's a roll of the dice as to who lives, and who dies. As I said above, four guys were pulling a boat out of the water and three of them died, one had his heart massively messed up but lived. I think it would be worse in very shallow water as the electricity would travel to the peoples bodies, then use their body to pass to the earth below their feet. If the electricity went through only their legs, there is a good chance that their legs would burn and possibly explode. At chest deep it would most likely destroy your heart, and so on. Either way its not a good idea to play around with water and electricity.



[edit on 4/9/2007 by defcon5]

Hmm how far away would it be felt? Say someone a kilometer away would they feel a tingle or something?

To be honest I don’t know that, and I just looked around the net and no one seems to know the exact distance or how fast it dissipates over distance. They only know a rough distance from fish kills and that is about like I said, 100 to 200 feet for fresh water, and 30 to 80 for salt.

Next time I'm out surfing and lighting hits, I'll be sure to make a beeline for this thread and tell you guys what happened.


Stop scaring me!

Originally posted by watch_the_rocks
Next time I'm out surfing and lighting hits, I'll be sure to make a beeline for this thread and tell you guys what happened.


Stop scaring me!

LoL well maybe it'll zap the sharks around ya as well

I'm not sure if it's not an artist rendition, but all the other pics on the site are photographs and there was no caption saying it's a rendition.

In any case I think it's impressive



Might be informative, came across it whilelooking for photographs
Lightning question

[edit on 9-4-2007 by David2012]

Hmm it says on that site that salt water is more conductive?

Also so say you were swimming under the water you would be more like to not get shocked?

Originally posted by iCEdTenG
Hmm it says on that site that salt water is more conductive?

Yeah it is, which makes it dissipate faster.

Salt water is a great conductor of electricity/lightning and thus would immediately discharge the lightning strike.

Originally posted by iCEdTenG
Also so say you were swimming under the water you would be more like to not get shocked?

Supposedly; which is why I specified that it travels on the surface in my first post. However; personally, I would not want to test this theory to find out if it’s accurate or not.

Lightning is MORE deadly in salt water than in fresh water due to electricity's INCREASED conductivity. Think about it - your entire body is saline because it is what allows all of your nervous impulses to pass through it. People who drink too much water die because their body can no longer transmit signals effectively.

Lighting passes through water in ALL directions. In most cases we are talking feet to meters - not kilometers. Water being of relatively low-conductivity will dampen the effects noticibly in a short distance. Keep in mind however, that water is also a grounding agent which may enable YOU to become the lightining rod that lightning seeks to find ground - so avoid it at all costs during a lightning storm!

Electricity always seeks the most direct path to ground. Defcon has the part about the surface correct. A lot of people misunderstand that. That is why stranded wire will carry more amperage without overheating. Solid wire conducts based on circular mils. Imperfections in solid wire reduce that. If you put a thin wire in between two sections of thicker wire you create a fused link. A common error made by homeowners that leads to house fires. A knick or break in the wire or a bad connection can also cause the same effect.

Pure H2O is a non-conductor. Even in fresh water it is the impurities that make it conductive. To calculate the danger zone you would have to know the contents of the water and have an expert on electrical theory in tow. The conductivity would vary greatly in different parts of the ocean and near the shore would be affected by the tide direction and the amount of fresh water entering to blend with the salt water. You would be safer near the mouth of a river for example.

Bottom line. It would be most foolish to surf during a lightning storm. Unless of course you want to die You would become the most direct route to ground the lightning is looking for.

[edit on 4/9/2007 by Blaine91555]

I hate to stray off topic, sort of, but I have an example of just how powerful lightning is...First hand experience...

My mother's house has a basement...

That basement used to allow a little water in through the concrete foundation, as well as under the rollup door, during a good rainstorm....

At most, you could get to a spot where the water was about 2 inches deep when it rained very hard...

About 10 years ago, I was home alone during a bad storm....I was concerned that the basement might be allowing in water, so I went downstairs to check.

I found that, like I had anticipated, it was...I rolled up the garage-type door and grabbed a broom and started pushing the water out into a drainpipe we had rigged under the ground outside..

The storm was still going on pretty hard outside, and all I could think about was getting the water out....

What I should have thought about was how it was not very safe for me to be standing barefooted in a pool of water during a strong thunderstorm.....

Long story short, a bolt of lightning hit a tree at my grandfather's house up a little path about 100 yards away...

The electricity surge was so strong that it lit my feet up like a strobe light and proceeded to throw me on my back....

I don't remember feeling anything pass through me. All I can remember is seeing the flash around my feet, and feeling just a little pop, like someone smacked the bottom of them at the same time....

Even being 100 yards away, it still had enough energy to send me into the air.

Let's just say I high tailed it back upstairs, and let the water just come right in for the rest of the storm..

The tree that the bolt hit just so happened to be the one my grandfather's dog was chained to...Sadly, it killed it....

I wouldn't be near any body of water if a storm rolled around, much less, submerged in one...


[edit on 9-4-2007 by Azazelus]

Originally posted by iCEdTenG
Hmm it says on that site that salt water is more conductive?

The more 'poluted' water is the better it conducts.. and it conducts really well.

Water in pure form without anything dissolved in it doesn't conduct at all.
But add e.g. some salts or acids etc.. and it becomes quite a nice conductor..

Why would one need to be careful with electricity and water if it didn't conduct (water is rarely pure unless you visit e.g. a chemistry lab.)

I Remember seeing this on a special about lightning a while back. The ground was wet at a soccer game after after a rainstorm and lightning hit the field. It traveled through the ground farther than it would have gone in dry conditions. The vid on the show had a better angle,but this is the only one i could find.

www.youtube.com...

[edit on 4/9/07 by spanishcaravan]

Originally posted by spanishcaravan
I Remember seeing this on a special about lightning a while back. The ground was wet at a soccer game after after a rainstorm and lightning hit the field. It traveled through the ground farther than it would have gone in dry conditions. The vid on the show had a better angle,but this is the only one i could find.

www.youtube.com...

[edit on 4/9/07 by spanishcaravan]

Thats right i remember seeing this on the news a while back

The lightning wouldn't follow an easily-predictable path, so I would think it's radius would vary wildly. This is what lightning looks like captured in acrylic (I think it's acrylic). Doesn't it travel similarly through (salt) water?



I've seen storms coming a couple of times, fishing out on the ocean - it's a truly amazing sight to watch mammoth thunderheads getting bigger, blocking out the sky, complete with flashes and booms, the rain a curtain preceeding the show...

And the great thing is that when there's a storm and you're out on the ocean, both halves of the world get angry and start throwing punches.

I've always been sort of a naturalist, observing nature at every opportunity.
I remember being a kid in St. Helen Michigan, I was at the lake every chance I had. I also remember watching the minnows when a thunderstorm rolled in.
Kinda neat in a way,, the storm was about a mile away, while watching the minnows in the water you could see the lightning flash in your peripheral vision. The minnows would always dart when the lightning hit, not when the thunder came. The thunder would always take a couple seconds more.
I wondered if maybe they saw the flash, so I did the same thing in the shadow of a boat and they acted the same way.
It leads me to believe that even though I was standing in the water and felt nothing, the fish did sense the electricity and reacted to it.

I have never seen lightning hit the water up close, but that pic is waaaaay cool!