How Far Does Lightning Travel In Water

Waters just off coasts. Salt or fresh water. The stepped leader carries tons of negative charge.

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The same is true with metals.

How far does lightning travel in water. Basic principles suggest that the answer is very close within maybe tens of metres so long as you are totally immersed in the water when the lightning strikes. I have scanned the formal literature and a common upper-limit is about 200 km 124 miles. When the lightning bolt hits the electrical current should flow mostly on the surface of the water.

Lightning doesnt strike the ocean as much as land but when it doesit spreads out over the water which acts as a conductor. This all depends on how close the lightning struck the water. In the images below I estimated lightning 90 to 120 miles from their parent thunderstorms.

Lightning strikes generate up to 260 dB at 1 metre in the water you could lose your hearing in one shot and the sound alone can kill fish. Even if its not raining on you lightning can still strike you. Within 20 feet though lightning could easily be lethal.

But lightning varies greatly in intensity so it could easily go further. While the flashes we see as a result of a lightning strike travel at the speed of light 670000000 mph an actual lightning strike travels at a comparatively gentle 270000 mph. It is not clear how deep a lightning strike will travel down through the water.

However the return stroke of a lightning bolt travels FROM THE GROUND INTO THE CLOUD and accounts for more that 99 of the luminosity of a lightning strike. Uman says lightning is high in voltage and in current but when lightning strikes water the charge dissipates rapidly away from the strike point because it spreads equally in all directions through. People have been killed or injured by direct or indirect strikes ground current or side flash while in or on the water boats docks piers or while fishing for example.

If youre at the beach and hear thunder or see lightning get out of the water. Yes seawater is saltier than the human blood lymph and cytoplasm. The idea is that any current generated by a lightning strike is more likely to spread out across the surface than to travel downwards so as long as the fish are sufficiently far below the surface they should be OK.