[Paddlewise] Lightning Paddles-St.Elmo's Fire--Reply

From: John Somers <somers_at_utmbrt.utmb.edu>
Date: Tue, 05 May 1998 14:14:22 -0500
Neil Harrison wrote:
	"if the lightning hits the water anywhere in the vicinity of 
your boat, you're still fried.  At least, that's what they told us in the 
Wilderness Advanced First Aid class that I took.."

	Neil, this is very interesting, especially if the class instructors had
any real-life data.  Did they say what they based this on?  I would expect
the water to disperse the frying somewhat.  But I also think we shouldn't
kid ourselves into thinking these effects are precisely predictable.  As
someone put it, we're dealing with "likely to"'s, that is, phenomena that
can be modelled only to the point of probabilities and not certainties.  If
I'm caught on the water and think lightning is about to strike, I want to
take any steps possible to minimize the probability of being hit; worry
about the absolutes later!
	Fought off any alligators lately?
	
	John

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Received on Tue May 05 1998 - 12:22:25 PDT

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