Lightning myths that get people hurt
Updated · 5 min read
Lightning strikes tall objects repeatedly, so it certainly strikes twice. Car tyres provide no protection, because it is the metal shell that conducts current around occupants. And the old advice to lie flat is now explicitly discouraged, as it increases exposure to ground current.
Does lightning strike the same place twice?[1]
Constantly. Lightning preferentially hits tall, isolated, conductive objects, so the same structures are struck repeatedly. The Empire State Building is hit roughly 20 to 25 times a year, and tall towers can take multiple strikes in a single storm.
The myth likely survives because individual strikes feel like rare, random events. From the perspective of a tall building on a hill, they are neither rare nor random.
Commercial aircraft make the same point. On average each airliner in service is struck about once a year, and the airframe is designed to carry the current along its skin and off the trailing edges without harming anyone aboard.
Do rubber tyres protect you in a car?[1]
No. A car is relatively safe because its metal shell conducts current around the occupants and into the ground, acting like a Faraday cage. The tyres are irrelevant. A convertible or a fibreglass-bodied vehicle offers little protection.
The practical implication is that you should keep hands off metal surfaces connected to the frame, and avoid touching the radio or a wired charger during a close strike. The same logic rules out bicycles and motorcycles as shelter, since they offer no shell and therefore no protection at all.
Is it safe to shower during a thunderstorm?
No. Metal plumbing and the water inside it conduct electricity, and a strike on the building or the ground nearby can energise both. Health agencies advise against showering, bathing, washing dishes or touching taps while a storm is overhead. Corded phones and wired appliances carry the same risk.
Contact injuries through plumbing and wiring are among the main ways people are hurt indoors. A building is still the right place to be, but the current from a strike needs a path to ground, and pipes and cables are that path.
Wireless devices are fine to use. The hazard is a conductive line to the outside of the building rather than the electronics themselves, so a phone on a charging cable is a risk while the same phone on battery is not.
Should you lie flat during a thunderstorm?
No. Lying flat is outdated advice that increases your contact with the ground, and most lightning casualties come from current spreading through soil rather than direct strikes. If you are caught outside with no shelter, keep moving toward a building or hard-topped vehicle.
The former recommendation to crouch in a ball has also been dropped by major safety bodies, on the grounds that it offers negligible benefit while giving people a false sense that a safe outdoor option exists. There is no safe place outside during a thunderstorm.
One habit does still help a group caught in the open: spreading out several meters apart. It makes a single strike less likely to injure everyone at once, and it leaves someone on their feet to start CPR if the worst happens.
- Myth: rubber boots protect you
- far too thin to matter against hundreds of millions of volts
- Myth: it must be raining
- positive strikes hit over 10 km from the storm, under clear sky
- Myth: victims stay electrified
- false, and dangerous. Casualties are safe to touch and need immediate CPR
- Myth: metal attracts lightning
- height and isolation matter far more than material
References
- Lightning MythsUS National Weather Service, 2026
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