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It's only dangerous to be in a tent in a thunderstorm if lightning happens to hit the tent..........but then again, it's also not real great to sitting in the metal cage that composes your car or RV if lightning hits it.
Seriously, folks, the odds of lightning hitting your tent are astronomically small; you stand a much higher chance of being injured while driving to your camping site.
Not tent related, but we had a FedEx driver, while opening a metal gate to make a delivery, get struck by lightning. Actually, it struck the gate and "lit" her up a little bit
Needless to say, she took the rest of the day off.
Not tent related, but we had a FedEx driver, while opening a metal gate to make a delivery, get struck by lightning. Actually, it struck the gate and "lit" her up a little bit
Needless to say, she took the rest of the day off.
We had a friend who was killed about 15 years ago the same way...opening a gate. I don't think most people respect lightning enough.
But, as Cornerguy1 said, your safer in your tent than in your car driving to the campsite...but being in the tent during a nighttime lightning storm sure can feel more dangerous!
i wouldn't do it i HATE thunderstrorms and im going camping on july 26 to st george UT and i read the weather report it said it would thuderstorm for 3 out of the 5 days we are there but it also 30% chance of rain does that mean that would be the thunderstorm percentage too?
If the chance of rain is 30%, then the chance of thunderstorms is smaller. For the chance of rain and thunderstorms to be the same would mean that every bit of rain would be a thunderstorm...and that isn't going to happen.
What 30% chance of rain actually means is that any point, say, right where you’re sitting, at any time during the forecast period, their is a 30% chance of rain. It might rain. This means that 3 out of 10 times when the current weather conditions existed previously, it rained.
That's all it means. So the chance of actual thunderstorms will be even less.
A tent can get hit by lighting and kill everyone inside, especially if it is raining. Even a group of hikers caught on a mountain top that went into a small cave had fatalities and severe injuries from a lightening strike.
Lightening can strike nearby (say a tree) and still kill you in your tent nearby.
A car (or truck) is 100% safe as long as you don't have your hands on the outside of the car when lightening strikes (say having a window cracked open and your fingers resting on the door frame). This is because the car acts as a "Faraday Cage" and distributes the charge along the outside surface of the car. It has nothing to do with the rubber tires insulating you from the ground.
Being a car with rubber tires is better because when well grounded a light strike does not have to be a direct hit.Many people are hti that is not a direct strike then a direct hit. In that case your probably dead. That is why people are wrned aginst shelterig under a tree.If you have seen lightenig hit a tree then you know what I mean.Lee Trevino talks about what a near hit did to him on golf course.A paramedic friend has seen several and he said the most commo thing to look for on how bad is holes in the bottom of their feet.
i wouldn't do it i HATE thunderstrorms and im going camping on july 26 to st george UT and i read the weather report it said it would thuderstorm for 3 out of the 5 days we are there but it also 30% chance of rain does that mean that would be the thunderstorm percentage too?
So there's a 70% chance that it won't rain, right?
Don't know if it's dangerous, but it sure feels dangerous..
A couple of years ago, we were camping up in Robbinsville NC and a hellacious thunderstorm erupted just after we had gone to bed.
We weren't at timberline, but were under some big trees...we stayed put...our dog was cowering and were, too..we two humans held on to one another and rode it out praying that one of the surrounding big trees wouldn't come down and squish us likes bugs...felt like the strikes were shaking the ground around us, or maybe it was the three of us shaking?
That was the scariest camping adventure I ever had..except for the Visit from the Bears in Yosemite, but that's a tale for another time...
I love thunderstorms so that would actually be a great time for me, but maybe I'd take a precaution and find something rubber I can put over my tent just for a piece of mind.
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