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this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2025
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I’m sure it follows logic along the lines of “everyone I know has been following the crouching guidelines their entire life, and none of them have been struck, so it must work!”
Or like "if I duck lower than a fence pole than the lightning strikes the fence pole." But it's a conductivity thing, an open field of wet grass is a crappy situation.
Would lying flat and wriggling your way to safety like a big wet human worm help? Or always traveling with a taller, damper friend?
Lying flat, especially with a wet contact to the ground is about the worst you can do. Especially in tne mountains, where voltage gradients reach much farther from the point of the strike.
It is true that lightning is much more likely to strike a fence pole, but it is also true that being near a fence pole which gets gets struck is still extremely dangerous, as the main plasma channel will arc to other things in the area, and just generally creates a massive, dangerous electric field which extends out for several meters.
None of them have likely won Lotto either, but they don't stop playing.