Dr. Schmidt explains the world: Can a person survive a lightning strike?

In Delmenhorst, Lower Saxony A family sheltered under a tree during a downpour. Lightning then struck a tree nearby; there were several injured. Why does electricity actually discharge when clouds gather in the sky?

Clouds are made up of many tiny ice crystals. When they rub against each other during turbulence, they become electrically charged. And since some clouds are huge, there are billions of ice crystals that become charged. This electricity has to discharge at some point.

That’s millions of volts coming from the sky?

Correct. The discharge usually only lasts a fraction of a second.

Why does lightning actually strike a tree?

The tree struck by lightning in Lower Saxony was probably slightly higher or wetter than the one next to it. And it was apparently better suited for discharging electricity into the ground than the one under which the family stood.

Can we say that trees attract lightning?

That’s how you can say it. Anything that sticks out of the plane and is somewhat electrically conductive runs the risk of being struck by lightning. Trees, church towers…

So if a thunderstorm rages here in Berlin, lightning would constantly strike the television tower.

Around Alexanderplatz it actually usually hits the television tower.

How dangerous is a lightning strike for us humans?

Most people who are struck by lightning don’t die. In Germany we have an average of four deaths and 110 injuries every year. That’s not nothing, but it’s not particularly much either. However, very little is reliably known about the possible long-term consequences of injuries.

I don’t understand. A lightning strike is comparable to an electric chair.

No he is not. The current only flows for a very short time in a lightning strike, and often enough it does not pass through the body, as in the execution method, but through wet clothes. That’s probably how it was in Delmenhorst too. This means burns are likely. This is one of the most common injuries in such cases. But sometimes lightning can also paralyze the heart. However, resuscitation often works.

If the lightning in Delmenhorst hit the neighboring tree, did the wet ground conduct the electricity to the family? A firefighter said something similar.

No, once the lightning is grounded, it’s gone. I mean that the electricity from the neighboring tree jumped to people. They may have been better grounded than the tree trunk.

Speaking of grounding. Why is the safest place to be in a strong thunderstorm?

This is a Faraday cage, named after the 19th century English physicist. He had discovered that if you are in a room that is completely surrounded by electrically conductive elements, then whatever can happen out there – it is all derived from the cage.