Lightning

Last night I flew into Salt Lake and when we landed we couldn't pull up to the gate because of a lightning storm. In my 20+ years of air travel, I have never been delayed because of active lightning and so this is not a common occurrence. When the pilot made the announcement that the ground crew could not come outside to direct the plane to the gate, I understood. Unfortunately not everyone on the plane did.

My wife grew up the the Seattle area and spent a good part of her childhood playing outside in the rain. Up there they have cloud-to-cloud lightning and so nobody came inside during a thunderstorm. Here in Utah, as well as other parts of the country, we have ground lightning and that will kill you.

Lightning is one of the more unpredictable forces of nature. We try to control its path through the use of lightning rods but the reality is that lightning will go wherever it wants and there is not much we can do about it. Should you be caught outside and can see lightning go from the sky to the ground, your best bet is to go inside a building or car (as long as it is not a soft-top convertible). Buildings are safe because they will generally keep the lightning away from the middle, which is where you want to be. Cars are safe, not because of the rubber tires but because the electrical charge will stay on the outside of the car body. Planes are equally safe and so sitting outside did not pose any danger to us passengers.

So why are people told to turn off and unplug computers during lightning storms? The best explanation is that your house electrical system is not compatible with the high voltages produced by lightning. If your house gets hit by lightning, the electricity will try to find a way to ground. All of the copper plumbing pipes and electrical wiring make a great path to ground and so lightning will seek it out. If your computer equipment is plugged in and/or has a wired network connection, part of the lightning strike will get into your computer and fry everything. More than likely you will have to replace everything that is electrical in your house should it be struck by lightning.

Going back to the poor ground crew that met our plane last night. I had one vocal passenger behind me ignorant of lightning danger. With all the water on the tarmac, a strike could happen a fair distance from one of the workers yet the person could still receive a lethal shock. While I would have liked to disembark the plane sooner, I would not wanted to have risked the life of ground crew.

Lightning Protection

When I am home in Utah during the winter, I like to start out each morning with a quick trip to the ski resort for some early exercise. It is only 15 minutes away and is a great way to start the day. Today I happened to be there during a nice snowstorm. As sometimes happens, today's storm included thunder and lightning. The ski area stopped loading new passengers, got everyone off the lifts, and closed until 30 minutes after the last lightning. I didn't have time to wait around and had gotten my exercise for the day, so I headed home to go to work.

This got me thinking about lightning and how to protect your electronics during a lightning storm. For the most part, the chances of having your home struck by lightning are fairly small. I do take several precautions with my own equipment that you might find useful.

1. Turn off all of my computers.
2. If it is a big storm and I am really concerned I will go so far as to unplug all of my expensive electrical equipment.
3. Unplug all network cables from my computers.
4. If I am on my sailboat with a giant lightning rod sticking out of the top of the boat (it is normally called a mast), I will put all of the electronics in the oven which does an excellent job of protecting everything

I think it is rare that you will ever need to place your laptop or tablet in your home oven. If you do, just remember to take it out before preheating your oven to bake something.