lightning

Nonono. Cars are naturally insulated (big rubber tyres remember) and not attractive to lightning. Earthing them makes things worse - not only does it become a target, but any charge flows rapidly to ground through the wire, probably melting it and heating up nearby metal bodywork to the point where petrol and plastics will catch fire.

If your car gets struck, apparently you should remain in it till the charge leaks away naturally, which doesn't take long.

Mark McIntyre explained on 26/07/2006 :

Lightning won't care about the size of your tires - its managed to jump a couple of km or so before its hit your car - do you think it cares about another 6"?

It won't make them any more of a target, but the rest of that statement is true.

Being in your car during a lightning storm is one of the safest places you can be - it acts as a Faraday cage. Just remember to close the sun roof ;-)

Not exactly on the lightning topic, but have you ever considered a conductive grounding strap(s) for your car? They are rubber with what I assume carbon mixen in to make it conductive. They drag on the ground, so they are a wear item, but very cheap. I buy them on the east coast, but I suspect you could get the straps in the Sierras. They tend to be sold in cold areas for people that don't like getting zapped from the static charge built up on the car.

Good tires have enough carbon in the rubber to act as natural grounding straps. Unfortunately, the BF Goodrich tires on my Trailblazer do not fall into that category. :(

Just the antenna? I expected a smoking hole in the ground. The problem with such lightning hits is that divine retribution usually means that you've done something wrong. For example, even the NWS can incur the wrath of god:

There are those who can't seem to follow instructions. The trick is to stay inside the car, which means to not dangle your arm out the window:

The ground rod will work. However, I'm a bit concerned that the heavy gauge wire extension cord between the ground rod and your vehicle might be a bit short when you drive away.

I generate amazing static electricity with Yokohama Geolanders.

Actually I meant that seeing the antenna getting blown off the top of the lady's car reminded me that I really needed to ground my rooftop mast.

I'm not sure a passenger car is all that great of a Faraday cage. It has big windows (with no protection) and the doors are only attached to the frame at a ~3 points. Given a choice, I'd much prefer something a bit more electrically solid like a large metal culvert.

-wolfgang

On Wed, 26 Jul 2006 23:18:40 +0100 Mark McIntyre wrote: | On Wed, 26 Jul 2006 13:13:48 -0700, in alt.internet.wireless , | "Wolfgang S. Rupprecht" | wrote: | |>

|>More on the lightning theme. Some woman's car got hit in the parking |>lot and the car's antenna got blown clean off. The car computer |>wasn't working after that either. |>

|>

|>

|>Crap. I really need to go to Home Depot and buying a grounding rod |>and some heavy gauge wire. | | Nonono. Cars are naturally insulated (big rubber tyres remember) and | not attractive to lightning. Earthing them makes things worse - not | only does it become a target, but any charge flows rapidly to ground | through the wire, probably melting it and heating up nearby metal | bodywork to the point where petrol and plastics will catch fire. | | If your car gets struck, apparently you should remain in it till the | charge leaks away naturally, which doesn't take long.

Things can get exciting with high voltage. And this isn't even close to the voltage lightning has. But apparently the current probably lasted a bit longer.

Yes, if it has a choice of your car with insulated tyres, and a nearby human connected directly to the ground.....

Exactly !

Yeah, but the 0-60 performance sucks, and when you drive it on the freeway, people point at it and laugh, never mind that parallel parking it is going to be difficult. Then there's the problem of trying to get the da** thing smog tested. Wonder what kind of mileage you'd get?

Old guy