Can Lightning Travel Through Rubber

The basis of the claim is that a bolt of lightning that hits a house or building even one that is protected against severe weather can travel through plumbing into metal pipes and shock.

Can lightning travel through rubber. Lightning can even travel through concretein fact thats how they believe it got into the auto shop in Rochesteror metal bars and wires in floors and walls. Bolts from the blue can strike 10-15 miles from the thunderstorm. Rubber shoes will not give you any meaningful protection from lightning.

The speed of lightning. Although the rubber in a tire acts as an insulator at low voltages the voltage in a lighting bolt is far too high to be stopped by tires or air. Most cars are safe from lightning but it is the metal roof and metal sides that protect you NOT the rubber tires.

But this belief is an urban legend said John Jensenius a lightning safety specialist with the National Lightning Safety Council. Its a myth that rubber tires protect a vehicle from being struck. While rubber is an electric insulator its only effective to a certain point.

The electrostatic discharge occurs within a cloud between clouds. The average lightning bolt carries about 30000 amps of charge has 300. In 1988 22-year-old Laura McDowell of Montezuma New York was killed when lightning came through the telephone line while she was talking on.

When lightning strikes directly or even near your house or office the electrical surge will travel as far as it possibly can via any conductive route it can find. The current can travel through the pipes and. Whats more the tap water moving in these.

Rubber tires on a car protect you from lightning by insulating you from the ground. Lightning canand often doesstrike in the same place twice. Metal is a good conductor so if lightning strikes an unprotected house chances are the current will travel through any metal pipes.