Thanks for contributing an answer to Engineering Stack Exchange! Conversely, if you are farther than 500 feet from that location, you could wave your golf club or umbrella high in the air, but you won't draw the lightning away, even slightly, from striking where it's going to strike. MYTH: Ipods and headphones attract lightning. At the tip of the rods I put some isolating tape, so that it covers the tip of the rod. The one valid claim against wearing jewelry is that in the event that you were hit directly, the lightning may flow through any metal on your person, superheating (or even vaporizing) it and causing severe burns. Are broiler chickens injected with hormones in their left legs? A tall television broadcast tower or a mega-skyscraper introduces a huge leap in size, and the resultant 'degree of influence', from an umbrella, earring or house. At the tip of the rods I put some isolating tape, so that it covers the tip of the rod. I'm assuming the railings in your picture are metal. When you start talking to your friends and family about your new metal roof, inevitably someone will gasp and say, “Don’t you know that your metal roof attracts lightning!”They might try to convince you to avoid metal roofs in order to avoid attracting lightning strikes. FAQ: If metal doesn't attract lightning, then why do laboratory sparks always hit the metallic objects? That is, a three-foot high umbrella will not attract or influence a lightning channel that strikes more than three feet away (see illustration below). So you're probably safe. The foil will present an easier path for the flow of electrons, so will marginally increase the likelihood of the next discharge picking that path. This is because if it were coming from above, then the building's lightning rod would take care of it. Since earthquakes are caused by the buildup and release of tremendous, large-scale forces (from movement of huge tectonic plates that make up the earth's crust), a person jumping up and down on the fault, or even a bomb exploding over the fault, are tiny specks compared to the enormous forces working inside the earth to create earthquakes. How to highlight "risky" action by its icon, and make it stand out from other icons? The more lightning is studied and photographed, the more it is found to defy these age-old myths. When a cloud-to-ground lightning channel is forming, it is going to strike the ground where the opposing charges are greatest, directly underneath the storm's most electrically active region. The building has lightning protection on top. Will these rods attract lightning? Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers. FAQ: What can the outdoorsperson do to reduce the risk of getting hit by lightning? Photographic and laboratory evidence suggests that a conductive object will only attract a lightning channel at a distance at or less than the object's longest vertically-oriented dimension. Small metal objects will not attract a lightning channel that is further away than a distance equal to the object's length. MathJax reference. The danger of this myth is that it fosters the assumption that it is safer to be outdoors if you just isolate yourself from metal objects. The descending stepped leader of a lightning bolt doesn't 'decide what to strike' until it is very close to the ground. Not only is their immense size incomparable to small metal objects on the ground, these structures significantly reduce the insulating air gap bewteen a thunderstorm cloud and ground - something a house, golf club or umbrella fails to do. The paths of lightning can not be predicted with certainty, so it becomes a question of probability. It strikes the ground next to buildings, trees and metal poles (see photo below). Not because of the umbrella or golf club, but simply because you're outside where the lightning is occurring! Will PVC build up an electric charge and cause a spark? Metal, according to National Weather Service experts, has nothing to do with attracting lightning. If you are standing at that exact location, you will be hit, even if there's no metal within miles! It has been found that the 'degree of influence' of metal objects on lightning is proportional to the size of the object. If lightning were to hit the side of the building at these balconies, then I'd expect the railings to be hit. This video is also quite good (especially as of 0:56, but the rest is worth watching as well) since it shows lightning in super slow motion, so you can see it "searching" for a path down to earth. To become a better guitar player or musician, how do you balance your practice/training on lead playing and rhythm playing? The graphic below is an approximation of what Chicago's Sears Tower looks like when superimposed next to a thunderstorm. The balcony is a recessed one. It hits in valleys at the base of huge mountains. To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers. In other words, for most objects on the ground, a lightning strike must already be occuring at extremely close range for any attraction effects to come into play. TRUTH: For all intents and purposes, nothing 'attracts' lightning. You could compare this myth to the one that suggests that you can jump up and down on the San Andreas Fault in California and trigger an earthquake. A metal earring will only attract a lightning bolt that is less than one-half of an inch away! A lightning bolt that is several miles long, generated by a cloud that is more than 6 to 10 miles high, is not going to be influenced by your jewelry, or even your house. And your hair beret or necklace will only draw a lightning channel to it if it's less than a couple inches away - in which case the lightning would already be striking you to begin with! Because this answer does not only answer my question, but probably other people's similar questions too, I gave the green tick to this one. Why doesn't a lightning strike destroy the lightning rod? Stack Exchange network consists of 176 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers. This makes any relevance to safety a moot point, as lightning striking within a few feet of a person standing outside is usually just as lethal as a direct hit. Absolutely not! Thanks for your answer. GO: Home | Storm Expeditions | Photography | Extreme Weather Library | Stock Footage | Blog, Web Site Design and Internet Marketing by CIS Internet, tall television broadcast tower or a mega-skyscraper. Example of X and Z are correlated, Y and Z are correlated, but X and Y are independent. But frankly, in that case, burns will be the least of your problems. METAL MYTH #1: METAL ROOFS ATTRACT LIGHTNING. Weather Library > Lightning Myths: Small metal objects attract lightning. To subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader. Will lightning strike an aluminum rod in a pot on my balcony? Lightning would have to strike within three feet of this umbrella before it could be 'attracted' to the umbrella. Myth: If trapped outside and lightning is about to strike, I should lie flat on the ground. Woe be to him that reads but one book - meaning? I'd say that your rods are quite unlikely to be hit by lightning, considering that you are 3 floors down from the top, and there appear to be other metal structure between you and the sky. If you're really this worried about it, why not use wooden rods instead of aluminum? The important thing here is to learn that lightning searches for a path in steps. Visualize your umbrella or earrings scaled to size on this picture - they wouldn't even be visible. xkcd has a fantastic description of how lightning works. A house or building may attract a lightning bolt that comes down at or less than a distance equal to its height. (OR) MYTH: Wearing jewelry, wearing shoes with metal cleats or carrying metal objects such as tripods, golf clubs and umbrellas will attract lightning and make me more susceptible to a strike. Visualize your 30-foot high house, your 3-foot umbrella, or your 1/2 inch earring next to a thundercloud 55,000 feet high and 15 miles in diameter, and you can begin to see the relative insignificance of objects on the ground when it comes to a lightning discharge. The only way a small conductive object like an umbrella would 'attract' a lightning channel is if the lightning already was about to strike less than three to five feet away. 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