Suddenly, we notice that so-and-so's hair was beginning to fluff up, and we laughed. Soon that happened to all of us. One of us realized what was happening, and we did an emergency full speed run to the shore.
No lightning appeared, we were darn lucky.
https://hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q10893.html
Looks like the answer is: "not enough to be worry some, and even less if it's not a direct hit"
> assuming that the lightning bolt produces as much radiation as an industrial x-ray machine
Where was that pulled from?
Then:
> a person who is close to the bolt would receive about a tenth of a fatal dose
That is actually quite a problem if we just take their assumptions for granted
Then they even say:
> As far as I know, however, there are no direct radiation dose measurements from this dark lightning so we don't really know exactly what the dose is
So basically that expert's opinion amounts to "lets make an assumption based on literally nothing, based on that it's only 1/10th of what's needed to kill you but even then we have no data so this is all made up"
I did learn about "dark lightning" from that article which does produce gamma rays, which I found fascinating.
The scariest part was later when I went to check again what the speed of sound was and I saw about 340 m/s, then I realized for the sound to be apparently simultaneous with the light, it would probably have had to have been no more than 250 ms behind the flash, conservatively, or I probably would have noticed the delay. Using that as an upper bound it puts the strike at no more than 85 meters away. Realistically it might have been in the neighborhood of 50ms, as I don't think I could perceive that difference at all. That would have put it about 17 meters away, but I wonder then if I would have been within range for electrocution had that been the case. The ground was soaked but I was walking on asphalt, if that makes any difference. Searching now I see lightning can arc horizontally on the ground around 20m, so maybe it was really somewhere between 50 and 250 meters away.
When I was a kid, a lightning bolt hit a wood utility pole and exploded a hole about an adult's height deep & wide in the ground where the pole was mounted. I'll believe "ground shakes like buried TNT was blown up".
They put up this really long line - 537 m - and it seems like it was burned off by "lightning", but I think this happens by such static build-up and no proper lightning will be seen. The voltage difference between the mountainsides rises and is enough to cut the line, far earlier than any lightning strikes?
In the video they show the burned line at around the 6:20 mark.
> You can sometimes sense that a lightning strike is imminent by a
> tingling in the skin and the sensation of the hair standing on end. If
> you are standing up, drop to the ground AT ONCE, going first to the
> knees with the hands touching the ground. If you should be struck,
> the charge may take the easiest route to the earth through your
> arms - missing the torso and possibly saving you from heart failure
> or asphixiation. QUICKLY LIE FLAT.If you manage to find yourself in a lightning storm in a small, open sailboat, you’ve made a pretty big mistake, but essentially the same rule applies.
On larger vessels, if you’re belowdeck and aren’t touching anything metal, a lightning strike is usually a survivable incident, especially if your boat has a thoughtfully designed lightning protection system. All this involves is making sure you give the lightning a low-resistance path to ground through your boat’s keel and then the water that doesn’t run through anything expensive.
edit: I realize now maybe you didn’t mean specifically in the “on a boat” situation. Hopefully this comment is maybe interesting to fellow salty sea dogs. Yarr.
In a car: stay inside, doors closed, avoid touching the frame & such.
In an open field: crouch down with your feet together, don't put hands on the ground. Find lower ground if you can, e.g. a ditch. Don't lay down, keep your feet together.
Do not go under a tree. If you're around a lot of trees, best spot is as far from the base of any tree as the tree is tall.
And while we're here, if you ever hit a utility pole with your car hard enough to risk damage to the electrical wires, exit the car by hopping onto both feet together & letting go of the car before you land, and carefully hop away with both feet together. If you can't hop, do a very slow shuffle with feet together.