What did you do today

[bdosborn]

Just back from our annual detail on a lookout in the middle of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness.

Awesome views! Is there a stool with insulated legs to sit on during a lightning storm?


Bruce

[Tom&Shelly]

Just back from our annual detail on a lookout in the middle of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness.

Awesome views! Is there a stool with insulated legs to sit on during a lightning storm?


Bruce

I've taken enough EM fields classes that I wouldn't believe in that, except maybe if I were in a fire tower in the middle of a thunderstorm...

On the other hand, I might start a wicked rumor that an all metal shelter on top of the fire tower acts like a Faraday cage and protects the occupants.

Are there cases reported of fire watchers being struck by lightening?

Tom

[tony.latham]

Is there a stool with insulated legs to sit on during a lightning storm?

There's one. I suppose we could stand on that thing and hug each other for a while...

Are there cases reported of fire watchers being struck by lightning?

The lookout was built in 1947. It's heavily grounded with several runs of 3/8" copper wire. I don't know how many times it's been struck by lightning but in all those years, it's been struck, a lot. We took over from a guy that's been staffing this lookout for 51 years and has been inside when it's been hit several times. When we took over from him last year, the night before the shutter bolts were lit with St. Elmo's fire from the static during a storm. I really want to be inside when it gets struck. (Weird, eh?)

I don't believe the USFS has lost a lookout to lightning. Sadly, a lookout was killed this week when she decided to disregard an evacuation order at her home...

https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2022/08/08/mckinney-fire-very-respected-decades-long-forest-service-fire-lookout-among-four-people-killed/

Tony

[Staryder61]

Just back from our annual detail on a lookout in the middle of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness.



No lightning, so no new fires. Bummer.

Tony

Knowing and seeing first hand the devastation a fire can do.. your comment here totally takes me by surprise ....

No lightning, so no new fires.
Bummer.

You sound like my noobie cadet on his first truck out of the fire house.. "I hope we get a good one". He rolled hose for the next 3 fires..

Thankfully for all those that matter, there weren't any fires...

[tony.latham]

You sound like my noobie cadet on his first truck out of the fire house..

I worked wildfires for 15 years. There's not a true firefighter out there that doesn't want the whistle to blow from time to time. Firefighters feed on fire.



Tony

[JasenC]

Just back from our annual detail on a lookout in the middle of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness.

Awesome views! Is there a stool with insulated legs to sit on during a lightning storm?


Bruce

Those aren't to help make it easier for you to slide yourself down the bar to say hi to that pretty gal that just sat down.

[Tom&Shelly]

The lookout was built in 1947. It's heavily grounded with several runs of 3/8" copper wire. I don't know how many times it's been struck by lightning but in all those years, it's been struck, a lot. We took over from a guy that's been staffing this lookout for 51 years and has been inside when it's been hit several times. When we took over from him last year, the night before the shutter bolts were lit with St. Elmo's fire from the static during a storm.

Okay, that's exactly what I would expect. Of course, my knowledge is from theory. I can easily explain why it's perfectly safe in the tower during a thunder storm, especially after others have demonstrated it is so. If I were the first, I would be concerned there might have been some aspect of the theory I overlooked.

As for the half inch or so of glass insulation between the legs of the wooden chair and the thinly covered metal floor, when the lightning bolt travels several thousand feet through ionized air, what's to prevent it from ionizing that last few inches of air around the glass?

I really want to be inside when it gets struck. (Weird, eh?)

Sounds like an adventure!

"Adventure is the romantic name for trouble." -- Louis L'Amour

But, okay, I think I would be up for that too!

Incidentally, what I would like to see for such an adventure are good non-corroded bonds between the ceiling, walls, and floor of the inhabited shell on the tower, even the grounding down the tower into the ground wouldn't be as important. (In our friend's hydrogen balloon--that Shelly and I once flew in overnight--that bonding between conducting parts is the primary insurance against any sparks making it a Hindenburg re-enactment.)

Tom

[JasenC]

So which area do you put your bread during a lightening storm for the best results.

Please reference the chart.

[tony.latham]

So which area do you put your bread during a lightening storm for the best results.

Please reference the chart.

Good one. I do know we're supposed to stay away from the woodstove during storms.

Tony

[twisted lines]

I recommend hearing protection if your hunting lightning strikes, had a close one it's loud.
21 lightning fires, Believe this plane guides the big boys for the drop, they're all busy

and its windy enough it's clear for now.

[twisted lines]

Broke a femur

[tony.latham]

Broke a femur

Seriously???

Tony

[JasenC]

Broke a femur

What?!?!

[twisted lines]

X ray girl didn’t think so,
“I guaranty it’s not broke if you can touch it like that”
Yes it is.

[twisted lines]

Glad I got a new automatic this week.
Wish I drove it yesterday, the drive home with a clutch was Bad.