July 17, 2026 • 9 mins
A lot of sayings and ideas about how to avoid getting struck by lightning are misguided. Learn how to stay storm safe in a building, a vehicle, or outside in today's episode of BrainStuff, based on these articles: https://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/storms/do-rubber-tires-insulate-car-from-lightning.htm; https://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/storms/10-lightning-myths.htm
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff Lauren
vogelbon Here the story goes that one stormy afternoon in
seventeen fifty two, Benjamin Franklin set out to discover the
truth about lightning. This inventor, statesman and bon vivant fashioned
(00:23):
a kite from a large silk handkerchief and went on
a kite flying expedition in the middle of a thunderstorm
in order to demonstrate for the first time that lightning
is made of electricity by catching a bolt in a jar.
Or did he well. As with many of the stories
we tell about lightning, there are some myths to dispel
(00:46):
here and some important nuances. Today, let's talk about how
lightning doesn't work and how to keep yourself safe during
a thunderstorm. A hint, do not go fly a kite.
First up, let's tackle the proverb that lightning never strikes
the same place twice. This is a great metaphor for
(01:07):
how rare brilliance where fortune can be, but it's scientifically untrue.
Lightning strikes many places repeatedly. The Empire State Building, for example,
was once used as a lightning laboratory because of its
knack for collecting atmospheric bolts of electricity. That long metal
rod pointing up from the top isn't just for Godzilla
(01:30):
to clean his ears with. The skyscraper is designed to
take lightning hits and keep on ticking. It struck anywhere
from a couple dozen to one hundred times a year.
Lightning tends to be attracted to the tallest point in
a particular area, leaving the Empire State Building, which stands
at one thy four hundred and fifty four feet at
(01:51):
its tip that's four hundred and forty three meters to
duke it out with the smidgen taller Central Park Tower
and the slightly shorter Steinway Tower when storm clouds roll
in over Midtown Manhattan. There are also a number of
myths about how to stay safe during a thunderstorm. One
of the common ones, perhaps especially in the car centric
(02:12):
United States, is that if you can't get inside a building,
a car is one of these safest places to wade
out a storm because the rubber tires will insulate you
from lightning strikes. This is one of the ones where
nuance matters, because a car is a safe ish place
during a thunderstorm, but just not because of the tires.
(02:34):
If that were true, then motorcycles or bicycles, or particularly
stacked doc martins would protect you too. They do not.
It is true that rubber is an electrical insulator, not
a conductor, but an inch or two of it in
tires or your shoes isn't going to stop lightning from
striking the roof of your car or your head. If
(02:56):
that's the tallest thing around where a car has an
advantage over your bare head is that it's basically a
passenger sized Faraday cage. Electricity takes the path of least resistance,
which is down the metal body of your car, a
much like a lightning rod on a house. The metal
(03:16):
frame of the car will conduct an electric charge to
the ground, leaving the inside of the car shock free.
Just be sure to close the doors, roll up the windows,
and latch the sun roof in the event of a storm,
which you probably already did to keep dry, but just saying,
be aware that a convertible or a fiberglass framed car
(03:36):
won't protect you in the same way. If you're out
in a wide open area, you might want to pull over,
turn off the engine, put your emergency blinkers on and
wait out the storm in a safe stationary position where
if lightning does strike your car, it won't send you
careening out of control via say damage to important electrical
systems like breaking or steering. And if the thunderstorm is
(04:00):
accompanied by other conditions like strong winds or flooding that
could sweep your car away, definitely aim for a more grounded,
safe location, a pun intended after the fact. However, going
indoors during a thunderstorm won't make you completely safe. Most
any structure with walls and a roof is better than
(04:22):
a vehicle because it offers more physical protection. But remember
that lightning doesn't follow vampire rules. It doesn't need an
invitation to come in. During electrical storms, it's best to
stay away from doors and windows where lightning could travel
through metal components like a frame or handle, or break
the glass. To be on the safe side, you should
(04:43):
also steer clear of anything else that conducts electricity, like appliances,
especially if they're plugged in with a cord, and even
indoor plumbing like a shower or kitchen sink, especially if
you have metal pipes. If you do get caught outside
during a storm, don't panic. You just want to make
sure that you're not the tallest object in the area,
(05:03):
so get to lower ground versus higher ground if you can,
and never take shelter underneath tall objects like trees or
metal structures. You'll also want to steer clear of large
bodies of water. However, if you do panic a little,
take comfort in the fact the curling up in the
fetal position is pretty much the gold standard advice. A
(05:26):
prior wisdom was to lay down flat on the ground
if you can't find shelter, but the latest from safety
experts says to curl into what's called a lightning crouch.
You squat down with your feet together and tuck your
head toward your knees, with your hands covering your ears.
The advice here changed because when lightning strikes open ground,
(05:48):
it can send current some hundred feet or thirty meters
across the surface. That could mean trouble if you're sprawled out.
The crouch allows you to stay low while touching the
ground as little as possible. Note that this position is
no substitute for high tailing it indoors during a storm,
but if you're truly trapped outside, it's better than lying flat.
(06:12):
Also note that lightning isn't only dangerous when it's raining.
A lightning often hits some three miles that's five kilometers
outside of a thunderstorm, and can strike much farther. One type,
sometimes called bolts from the blue, are lightning flashes that
come out of the back of a thunderstorm from generally
(06:32):
clear skies as far as twenty five miles or forty
kilometers from the nearest rain cloud. Another type, called anvil
lightning arcs away from the center of a storm, striking
the ground as far as fifty miles or eighty kilometers away.
If you hear thunder, the safest bet is to take
shelter just in case, which brings us back to Ben
(06:55):
Franklin and his seventeen fifty two experiment. Theologized version of
this event goes that Franklin discovered electricity by getting a
kite he was holding struck by lightning, but that was
never really the claim. Humans have been observing and discussing electricity,
and particularly static electricity, for millennia, and a French scientist
(07:17):
beat Franklin's proof about lightning by about a month or so,
and if Franklin had been struck with lightning through a kite.
He probably would have died not gone on to publish
about it in the Pennsylvania Gazette. From his account and
that of fellow scientist Joseph Priestley, who wasn't there but
was interested, what seems to have happened was this. Franklin
(07:41):
wanted to show that lightning storms are a form of electricity,
so he and his son built a simple lightning rod
in the form of a kite, a silk handkerchief on
a frame of sticks with a metal wire attached to
the top. They used a hemp string for the lead
down to the ground, and then a silk string onto
(08:01):
the hemp one at hand height. The idea was that
the hemp would soak up water and conduct electricity, while
Franklin could hold onto the silk one and shelter in
a shed's doorway, keeping the silk string and himself more
or less dry and protected. He also suspended a metal
key from the hemp string in harm's way. So Franklin
(08:25):
and his son got the kite in the air, and eventually,
without ever being struck, what we can now identify as
negative charge from the ambient storm moved through the damp hemp,
making its frayed edges stand up, and when Franklin brought
his positively charged finger near the attached metal key, there
(08:46):
was a spark. He even collected some of that charge
in an early type of capacitor called a Leyden jar.
Some of the modern skepticism about the experiment comes from
failed attempts to repeat it with materials that would have
been available in Franklin's day. But we could chock that
up to difficult to control variables like kite flying dynamics
(09:07):
and exactly how damp the materials were. Perhaps lightning doesn't
strike the same kite twice. Today's episode is based on
the article ten Myths about Lightning written by Chris Hoffer
and do rubber tires Insulate your Car from Lightning? Written
by Kate Kirshner, both on housetuffworks dot com. Brain Stuff
(09:30):
is production by Heart Radio in partnership with Houstuffworks dot Com,
and it's produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts for
my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff Lauren
vogelbon Here the story goes that one stormy afternoon in
seventeen fifty two, Benjamin Franklin set out to discover the
truth about lightning. This inventor, statesman and bon vivant fashioned
(00:23):
a kite from a large silk handkerchief and went on
a kite flying expedition in the middle of a thunderstorm
in order to demonstrate for the first time that lightning
is made of electricity by catching a bolt in a jar.
Or did he well. As with many of the stories
we tell about lightning, there are some myths to dispel
(00:46):
here and some important nuances. Today, let's talk about how
lightning doesn't work and how to keep yourself safe during
a thunderstorm. A hint, do not go fly a kite.
First up, let's tackle the proverb that lightning never strikes
the same place twice. This is a great metaphor for
(01:07):
how rare brilliance where fortune can be, but it's scientifically untrue.
Lightning strikes many places repeatedly. The Empire State Building, for example,
was once used as a lightning laboratory because of its
knack for collecting atmospheric bolts of electricity. That long metal
rod pointing up from the top isn't just for Godzilla
(01:30):
to clean his ears with. The skyscraper is designed to
take lightning hits and keep on ticking. It struck anywhere
from a couple dozen to one hundred times a year.
Lightning tends to be attracted to the tallest point in
a particular area, leaving the Empire State Building, which stands
at one thy four hundred and fifty four feet at
(01:51):
its tip that's four hundred and forty three meters to
duke it out with the smidgen taller Central Park Tower
and the slightly shorter Steinway Tower when storm clouds roll
in over Midtown Manhattan. There are also a number of
myths about how to stay safe during a thunderstorm. One
of the common ones, perhaps especially in the car centric
(02:12):
United States, is that if you can't get inside a building,
a car is one of these safest places to wade
out a storm because the rubber tires will insulate you
from lightning strikes. This is one of the ones where
nuance matters, because a car is a safe ish place
during a thunderstorm, but just not because of the tires.
(02:34):
If that were true, then motorcycles or bicycles, or particularly
stacked doc martins would protect you too. They do not.
It is true that rubber is an electrical insulator, not
a conductor, but an inch or two of it in
tires or your shoes isn't going to stop lightning from
striking the roof of your car or your head. If
(02:56):
that's the tallest thing around where a car has an
advantage over your bare head is that it's basically a
passenger sized Faraday cage. Electricity takes the path of least resistance,
which is down the metal body of your car, a
much like a lightning rod on a house. The metal
(03:16):
frame of the car will conduct an electric charge to
the ground, leaving the inside of the car shock free.
Just be sure to close the doors, roll up the windows,
and latch the sun roof in the event of a storm,
which you probably already did to keep dry, but just saying,
be aware that a convertible or a fiberglass framed car
(03:36):
won't protect you in the same way. If you're out
in a wide open area, you might want to pull over,
turn off the engine, put your emergency blinkers on and
wait out the storm in a safe stationary position where
if lightning does strike your car, it won't send you
careening out of control via say damage to important electrical
systems like breaking or steering. And if the thunderstorm is
(04:00):
accompanied by other conditions like strong winds or flooding that
could sweep your car away, definitely aim for a more grounded,
safe location, a pun intended after the fact. However, going
indoors during a thunderstorm won't make you completely safe. Most
any structure with walls and a roof is better than
(04:22):
a vehicle because it offers more physical protection. But remember
that lightning doesn't follow vampire rules. It doesn't need an
invitation to come in. During electrical storms, it's best to
stay away from doors and windows where lightning could travel
through metal components like a frame or handle, or break
the glass. To be on the safe side, you should
(04:43):
also steer clear of anything else that conducts electricity, like appliances,
especially if they're plugged in with a cord, and even
indoor plumbing like a shower or kitchen sink, especially if
you have metal pipes. If you do get caught outside
during a storm, don't panic. You just want to make
sure that you're not the tallest object in the area,
(05:03):
so get to lower ground versus higher ground if you can,
and never take shelter underneath tall objects like trees or
metal structures. You'll also want to steer clear of large
bodies of water. However, if you do panic a little,
take comfort in the fact the curling up in the
fetal position is pretty much the gold standard advice. A
(05:26):
prior wisdom was to lay down flat on the ground
if you can't find shelter, but the latest from safety
experts says to curl into what's called a lightning crouch.
You squat down with your feet together and tuck your
head toward your knees, with your hands covering your ears.
The advice here changed because when lightning strikes open ground,
(05:48):
it can send current some hundred feet or thirty meters
across the surface. That could mean trouble if you're sprawled out.
The crouch allows you to stay low while touching the
ground as little as possible. Note that this position is
no substitute for high tailing it indoors during a storm,
but if you're truly trapped outside, it's better than lying flat.
(06:12):
Also note that lightning isn't only dangerous when it's raining.
A lightning often hits some three miles that's five kilometers
outside of a thunderstorm, and can strike much farther. One type,
sometimes called bolts from the blue, are lightning flashes that
come out of the back of a thunderstorm from generally
(06:32):
clear skies as far as twenty five miles or forty
kilometers from the nearest rain cloud. Another type, called anvil
lightning arcs away from the center of a storm, striking
the ground as far as fifty miles or eighty kilometers away.
If you hear thunder, the safest bet is to take
shelter just in case, which brings us back to Ben
(06:55):
Franklin and his seventeen fifty two experiment. Theologized version of
this event goes that Franklin discovered electricity by getting a
kite he was holding struck by lightning, but that was
never really the claim. Humans have been observing and discussing electricity,
and particularly static electricity, for millennia, and a French scientist
(07:17):
beat Franklin's proof about lightning by about a month or so,
and if Franklin had been struck with lightning through a kite.
He probably would have died not gone on to publish
about it in the Pennsylvania Gazette. From his account and
that of fellow scientist Joseph Priestley, who wasn't there but
was interested, what seems to have happened was this. Franklin
(07:41):
wanted to show that lightning storms are a form of electricity,
so he and his son built a simple lightning rod
in the form of a kite, a silk handkerchief on
a frame of sticks with a metal wire attached to
the top. They used a hemp string for the lead
down to the ground, and then a silk string onto
(08:01):
the hemp one at hand height. The idea was that
the hemp would soak up water and conduct electricity, while
Franklin could hold onto the silk one and shelter in
a shed's doorway, keeping the silk string and himself more
or less dry and protected. He also suspended a metal
key from the hemp string in harm's way. So Franklin
(08:25):
and his son got the kite in the air, and eventually,
without ever being struck, what we can now identify as
negative charge from the ambient storm moved through the damp hemp,
making its frayed edges stand up, and when Franklin brought
his positively charged finger near the attached metal key, there
(08:46):
was a spark. He even collected some of that charge
in an early type of capacitor called a Leyden jar.
Some of the modern skepticism about the experiment comes from
failed attempts to repeat it with materials that would have
been available in Franklin's day. But we could chock that
up to difficult to control variables like kite flying dynamics
(09:07):
and exactly how damp the materials were. Perhaps lightning doesn't
strike the same kite twice. Today's episode is based on
the article ten Myths about Lightning written by Chris Hoffer
and do rubber tires Insulate your Car from Lightning? Written
by Kate Kirshner, both on housetuffworks dot com. Brain Stuff
(09:30):
is production by Heart Radio in partnership with Houstuffworks dot Com,
and it's produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts for
my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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