How to save your house, family and yourself during a dry lightening strike #heatwave

I woke up last night not due to the ongoing heatwave but the massive dry lightening which was very unlikely to what I have ever experienced in California or India ( I grew up where it used to rain 4 months a year). Dry lightening forms a storm from high temperatures or along a weather front but, unlike normal thunderstorms, the rain evaporates before it reaches the ground, so lightening strikes dry vegetation and sparks bushfires. ... The fronts draw in strong hot, dry northerly winds, fanning the flames. Right when it began yesterday, I saw a post from a friend in Oregon, stories of huge portions of her neighborhood on fire due the dry lightening wildfires, yeah that freaked me out. The there was also news of wildfires in LA.

Here are some tips which could help save you, your family and home.

1) If you are camping outdoors, now is not the time, find shelter, get indoors to protect yourself from a dry lightening strike while we have the heatwaves.

2) Stay away from water bodies, lakes, any water bodies during the event of a dry lightening.

Water bodies with impurities can ionize and conduct, discharge through it.

3) Get inside a covered car, which is completed enclosed.

The concept is same as Faraday Cage which blocks all electromagnetic discharges on to it. So do not touch the conductor/metal portions, because that provides the conduction path to ground/earth. So this will be safe as long as you do not touch any metal surfaces.

Below is Nicola Tesla's concept of how Faraday cage protects EM waves. Nicola Tesla was known as a disruptive technologist showcasing how very high current could be safely discharged without any damages. I worked with Energous Corporation on Wireless charging products, based on similar concept.

4) Does your home/house has the construction protection required in event of a dry lightening strike?

As an Electromagnetic engineer my job is to save humans from radiations and emissions from wireless products, however dry lightening it is a massive electromagnetic discharge due to not man made products but the climate, global warming and natural calamities, and yes engineering is to solve complex problems, and this is IRL.

Without a designated path to reach ground, a lightning strike may choose to instead utilize any conductor available inside a house or building. This may include the conventional phone, cable, or electrical lines, the water ( impurities would cause ions to conduct) or (in the case of a steel-framed building) the structure itself. Lightning usually will follow one or more of these paths to ground, sometimes jumping through the air via a side flash to reach a better-grounded conductor. As a result, lightning presents several hazards to any house or building:

• Fire- Fire can start anywhere the exposed lightning channel contacts, penetrates or comes near flammable material (wood, paper, gas pipes, etc) in a building - including structural lumber or insulation inside walls and roofs. When lightning follows electrical wiring, it will often overheat or even vaporize the wires, creating a fire hazard anywhere along affected circuits.
• Side flashes - Side flashes can jump across rooms, possibly injuring anyone who happens to be in the way. They can also ignite materials such as a gasoline can in a garage.
• Damage to building materials - The explosive shock wave created by a lightning discharge can blow out sections of walls, fragment concrete and plaster, and shatter nearby glass.
• Damage to appliances - Refrigerators, TV, Computers, Laptops, microwaves, cable connected phones, washers, lamps and just about anything plugged into an affected circuit may be damaged beyond repair. Surges in the power grid can cause spike of high currents to damage the devices.

Adding a protection system doesn't prevent a strike, but gives it a better, safer path to ground. The air terminals, cables and ground rods work together to carry the immense currents away from the structure, preventing fire and most appliance damage

5) How to protect your house during a lightening strike event

Adding a lightening rod at a height much higher to your house so as to catch the lightening and provide the discharge of current , provide the path to ground. See the image below.

Ultimately, just make sure there is a conductive metal path to ground near you, and you are on an insulator (like rubber/plastic) , not touching any conductor. Also do not touch any metal which has received a lightening strike, it would it statically charged and maybe looking for a path to discharge.

Stay safe everyone! Share with people you care!

Let me know your thoughts, ideas, suggestions below!

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