A body of water is the equivalent of putting a hairdryer in a bath, and because water conducts electricity, lightning is more likely to strike water than land. If the water you're swimming in gets struck by lightning it can severely injure you or even kill you.
Even pools aren't safe. While you're less likely to be directly struck in a pool since there are things around you to draw the strike (especially in an indoor pool), the charge can still reach you while you're in the water. Metal elements like the pipes and plumbing can conduct electricity.
Lightning often strikes water, and water conducts electricity. That means that the currents from a lightning strike can seriously injure you. In fact, it can even kill you. This is why, when you hear thunder or see lightning, it's a good idea to avoid the pool, beach and any other large body of water.
Your best course of action is to get indoors and wait to resume water-based activities until at least 30 minutes after you've heard the last clap of thunder. Even if the sky is blue and you can see the sun shining, lightning is still a hazard until you've waited through this period.
Since the pump, lights and other facilities have power lines linked to the plumbing, a hit to any part of a pool complex can affect all of it. Water does not "attract" lightning. It does, however, conduct current very well.
So why don't all the fish die? Before a lightning strike, a charge builds up along the water's surface. When lightning strikes, most of electrical discharge occurs near the water's surface. Most fish swim below the surface and are unaffected.
If you are on a boat in open water when a thunderstorm rolls in, return to shore immediately and seek shelter. If you are unable to return to shore, boats with cabins offer some protection. If caught in a storm in a small boat with no cabin, drop anchor and get as low as possible.
Lightning doesn't strike the ocean as much as land, but when it does,it spreads out over the water, which acts as a conductor. It can hit boats that are nearby, and electrocute fish that are near the surface. If you're at the beach and hear thunder or see lightning, get out of the water.
So it sounds plausible that it could happen to you. But according to Aquatic Safety Research Group, "There are no documented reports of fatal lightning strikes at indoor swimming pools. None! Ever!"
The National Weather Service, National Lightning Safety Institute and the National Athletic Trainers' Association are three of several groups that recommend evacuation of indoor pools when the threat of lightning exists.
Being in the water in a storm
A typical lightning strike can be around 300 million volts and 30,000 Amps. That's easily enough to kill a human. When lightning strikes the sea, most of the electrical discharge radiates across the surface and this is the area where the greatest risk occurs.
A body of water is the equivalent of putting a hairdryer in a bath, and because water conducts electricity, lightning is more likely to strike water than land. If the water you're swimming in gets struck by lightning it can severely injure you or even kill you.
Lightning also strikes birds. An observer once saw a bolt of lightning strike a large flock of migrating snow geese, dropping more than 50 of the birds. Bald eagles have been struck while sitting on their nests, and John James Audubon described two common nighthawks blown from the sky by a lightning bolt.
Although biologists agree that it is entirely possible that marine mammals do get killed by lightning.
Roy Cleveland Sullivan (February 7, 1912 – September 28, 1983) was an American park ranger in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. Between 1942 and 1977, Sullivan was claimed to have been hit by lightning on seven occasions, surviving all of them.
Since water conducts electricity so well, there is no safe place in the water during an electrical storm. Lightning current dissipates in all directions. Even if the first strike was several miles away, you should never put yourself or your loved ones in danger.
The electricity that does enters a person's body can cause devastating neurological damage, including memory loss, chronic pain and seizures in addition to the relatively superficial burns on the outside of someone's skin. About 10% of people struck by lightning are killed.
Summer is the season for thunderstorms, and sometimes lightning can strike an aircraft that is flying. However, a lightning strike on an aircraft is not dangerous, as aircraft are designed to withstand lightning strikes.
While lightning has been recorded to strike at a distance of 10 miles, the rule of thumb used for safety is a six mile distance. Thus, seeking shelter is recommended if the lightning is six miles away or less.
As well as getting water through osmosis, saltwater fish need to purposefully drink water in order to get enough into their systems. Where their freshwater counterparts direct all of the water that comes into their mouths out through their gills, saltwater fish direct some into their digestive tract.
At 916 ft (279 m) in height and hundreds of feet higher than any nearby structure, the Eiffel Tower is not only the visual focal point of Paris but is one of the most eye-catching objects of any city anywhere in the world. On average, it's the target of lightning strikes about 10-times per year.
Typically, a sharp crack or click will indicate that the lightning channel passed nearby. If the thunder sounds more like a rumble, the lightning was at least several miles away. The loud boom that you sometimes hear is created by the main lightning channel as it reaches the ground.
Commercial transport passenger planes are hit by lightning an average of one or two times a year. They are designed and built to have conducting paths through the plane to take the lightning strike and conduct the currents.
Not surprisingly, the majority of strikes are on sailboats (four per 1,000), but powerboats get struck also (five per 10,000). Trawlers have the highest rate for powerboats (two per 1,000), and lightning has struck houseboats, bass boats, and even PWCs.