Lightning in the wilderness: How to minimize the danger

Last week, as part of Lightning Safety Awareness Week, I posted Updraft blogs about how lightning works, how lightning strikes people, and the question of who gets struck by lightning?

Then I received an excellent question about how to minimize one's lightning risk in remote places such as the Boundary Waters and think it deserves a more complete and prominent answer than I was able to post last week.

The unfortunate reality is that sometimes there just is not a safe place to go in the time available. This can be true whether you are canoe camping in the Boundary Waters or backpacking above treeline in the Rocky Mountains, far from a building or vehicle.

You simply are not safe anywhere outdoors in a thunderstorm, though there are some things you can do that might improve your odds a bit. Here are the basics from the National Weather Service.

• Avoid open fields, the top of a hill or a ridge top.

• Stay away from tall, isolated trees or other tall objects. If you are in a forest, stay near a lower stand of trees.

• If you are camping in an open area, set up camp in a valley, ravine or other low area.

• Stay away from water, wet items (such as ropes) and metal objects (such as fences and poles). Water and metal are excellent conductors of electricity. The current from a lightning flash will easily travel for long distances.

Here are my tips.

When making camp, try to pick a campsite that is among many smaller trees but not next to the larger trees. Your tent provides no protection whatsoever from a direct lightning strike. If lightning is nearby you can put sleeping pads, clothes, etc., between you and the ground to try to insulate yourself from ground currents that spread out from the location of the actual strike.

In a tent or if caught outdoors in the open, you might try crouching in the lightning position with your heels touching, eyes closed and hands over your ears if possible (to prevent ruptured eardrums from a shock wave of thunder) and hope for the best.

Google "lightning position" and you will see why it is also called the "lightning desperation position."

If you are unable to crouch like that for as long as necessary, and that probably includes most of us, at least sit on your pad and other insulating materials rather than lie down. Lying down, although it makes you as low as possible, exposes your entire body to ground currents.

If you are in a group that is caught outdoors in the open, have them spread out so that a lightning strike cannot disable everyone simultaneously.

Injuries and causes of death due to lightning

Those who are killed by lightning usually suffer immediate cardiac arrest.

Sometimes the heart re-starts itself but sometimes it does not. Because the stricken person carries no lingering electrical charge, CPR and other first aid can begin immediately. If possible, move the victim to shelter so that first aid performers are not exposed to subsequent lightning strikes.

Immediate injuries can include burns, loss of consciousness, ruptured eardrums, eye damage, damage to internal organs and muscle soreness.

Lingering injuries are mainly to the nervous system in some form, including concussion-like symptoms such as headaches, nausea, confusion and dizziness. Longer term, difficult-to-treat symptoms can include a variety of neurological problems such as headaches, chronic pain, chronic fatigue, memory problems, sleep disorders, depression and even personality changes.

Fortunately, many victims have few or none of these lingering issues. But, for some, the lightning strike that did not kill them set off a lifelong chain of pain and problems.

More information about the medical aspects of lightning has been posted by the National Weather Service.