same! i've been quite scared in lightening storms a few times and not really been sure what to do. worse, websites from credible organizations don't have a lot of advice other than "don't be outside in a storm" and "shelter in a car or building". none of these are options.

i'd love to know what the best thing to do is when cycling in the middle of nowhere and lightning moves in. currently i just ride and hope. if i saw an overpass i'd hang out there.

the safest solution is obviously not to be out in it. With todays technology, its pretty easy to keep an eye on the weather. If its iffy, I do shorter loops around home or between a friends house and mine, so I have an option to get to shelter.

If you truly are out in the middle of now where, your options are pretty limited. Stay low, away from tall trees/telephone poles. Small ditches if they aren't full of water are your best place to protect yourself from winds. If it's lightening, squat on both feet keeping as low as possible.

Well about 2500 people just did IMLP with thunderstorms and rain. No one stopped. That being said. Use a trainer if it's going to rain. Or find a bridge.

This^^^. If it's likely, I rearrange my schedule a little that day or ride on the trainer. I'd probably find the porch of a farm house if I got caught out in a really bad one. Hasn't happened. I've out ran or just missed a few that came close over the years.

Short loops is a good option. Not bad mentally since a lot of long course races are multiple loops. Can be a great workout too if there's a nice big hill you can repeat each lap. Just 2 miles form my house I have a road with a fairly steep 1/4mi long hill (40-42mph descent) that drops about 120' elevation then goes 130' back up. So In theory I could just ride back and forth from crest to crest getting in 250' in elevation every 1 mile loop.

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Yes, I always give the radar a look before I go out [either on my phone or on the Weather Channel on TV]

Also, and more importantly ...

There's NO "E" in "LIGHTNING"

AND, you seem to have apostrophe trouble, as well

< fixed them all for you >

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

+1 to both. Where I live there's a thunderstorm almost every evening because of the heat so I've just adapted to getting my training in earlier. If this isn't an option then maybe try to plan workouts that can be done indoors for when there's a chance of thunderstorms such as swimming or a trainer ride.

Another reason that I like to run in the morning

Plus, if there's been some rain overnight [and you're lucky] you can shake the branches & give yourself a little shower if you're too warm

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

I count that among my guilty pleasures.

Interesting. I would normally prioritize not getting hit by lightning ahead of spelling or grammar. Different strokes...

The odds of being hit by lightning vary from state to state, but it's generally well over 1 in a couple hundred thousand
The odds of running into bad grammar or misplaced apostrophes - on a daily basis - is pretty much even-money

Granted, the consequences are very, VERY different, but ... yeah, that's just me

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

I grew up in the midwest in an area where knowing how to survive bad weather is beat into you from a very young age.

Lightning - If you can not get inside a grounded structure (In Indiana, knocking on a door or standing in someone's shed or garage during a bad storm, is not considered an imposition. Never tried it on Long Island, but I assume someone would call the cops or shoot me.) your best next option is to squat down in an open field and stand on one leg and then cover your head. Sounds cumbersome, but the idea is to reduce your ground potential below everthing around you without being caught in a ground flashover condition from something else. People who run under trees are normally killed by ground flashover affect.

Stay away from water, especially large bodies of water like ponds and lakes. A lightning strike will cause the voltage to go to ground on the water's surface. The water will actually boil and evaportate away from the strike point. That is why people panic to get you out of the water in a storm. Fish survive because they are below the voltage path, which is at the water surface.

Tornadoes ??? There are all kinds of tricks, which is why you see all the destruction on TV and think everyone must have died, but only a few people were injured. I'm a survivor of the April 1974 Super Cell Storm:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Outbreak

My class mates stepped out of our school and it looked like London in 1942. Nothing was left. None of us had a scratch because we knew what to do, didn't panic, and the adults (teachers) really had their shit together.

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"...the street finds its own uses for things"

By your name, I'm assuming you got caught in that storm yesterday in New Hampshire? I was at our family house on Newfound and rode to the top of Waterville, which is about a 3-3.5 hour ride round trip. On my way home, as I reached the base of the mountain the sky opened up. I thought about stopping at a gas station or even a bike shop I saw, but I just kept on going. At one point I couldn't see a thing because of the amount of rain coming down, but oddly enough the lightening didn't bother me. Toughens you up I guess.

You have Weird Al's "Word Crimes" on your iPod, don't you?

you would think I know all that since I got hit once by lightning :) That was in an open parking lot though.

How about heavy wooded areas? my run route is heavily wooded and I get caught in thunderstorms very often.

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I try to keep an eye on weather and reschedule (or reroute) my workouts when I know something is headed my way. But for the odd occasion when I do get caught in a thunderstorm on a long ride I have a long list of potential shelters I keep in the back of my mind along my favorite routes. Examples:

A community park that includes a picnic shelter
An unmanned water pumping station with a small canopy over it's door
A fertilizer dealer with shelters over their outdoor stock yard.
The office at a quarry with a canopy over it's front door.
A county salt barn
Several unused barns that sit close to the roads I ride (most have at least one missing door).
Several homes with covered porches and residents that normally wave when I go by (never had to use them, but I assume the owners would be OK in a pinch)
A viaduct under the road that's more than big enough to hold a standing person in a pinch.
A golf course with a toilet shack that sits within 100 yards of the road.
Railroad bridges/underpasses.
Gas stations (of course)
...the list goes on.

Keep your eyes open and you'll find more opportunities to seek cover than you'd probably think.

And, yeah, if we're talking about tornadoes, that's a whole different problem.

Lets see - Indiana, not many woods, can't really farm those things. Long Island, a few parks and the like, I just stay out of them.

I really don't know if there is a good place to be in a heavily wooded area during a storm. I would be more concerned with a tree falling on me than a lightning strike, personally.

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"...the street finds its own uses for things"

One time I got caught in the middle of a bad thunderstorm I ducked into a fire station until it passed. The firemen were great about it. If worst came to worst and no shelter was availble I'd probably try to crouch down in a ditch away from any tall objects.

I live on the west coast of Florida, so lightning is a pretty common hazard.

The good thing is that the weather patterns off the Gulf of Mexico are pretty predictable and regular, so you generally know when lightning is likely. Riding in the early morning is generally the safest; most of the thunderstorms develop later during the heat of the day.

Before heading out, I'll check an interactive radar site online to see what might be popping up during the timeframe of my ride.

I'll generally err on the conservative side and not head out if I think I might get caught. Going to the gym is normally my back-up plan in case of inclement weather.



Mark

If you can't see a thing, it usually means other road users, including cars, probably can't see you well. I think it's unwise to ride in rain that heavy (light or medium rain is another story).

To the OP, the dangers with storms vary, and the appropriate response may vary as well - is it visibility? Then getting off the road anywhere will help. Lightning? Avoid standing under tall things and being in standing water. Flooding? Don't hide down low.

I've run into barns, stores/gas stations, and a covered parking garage to avoid some of these. One challenge is that stopping while wet often results in getting cold. But that's better than getting hit by lightning or blown over by wind into a car.

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I eat lightning and crap thunder...I'm a very dangerous poyson. so I don't really worry about it.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0CXUv-xxtY

 
i don't mean to be rude, but a good chunk of the places you have listed aren't safe, or, at least several sources of information i have found online claim that they are not safe. you will find this kind of phrase frequently "Avoid sheds, picnic shelters, baseball dugouts, and bleachers." you'll find the same about ditches, culverts, stands of trees, roof overhangs, etc.

so as a person who does long rides in a remote area almost every day, i still don't know the safest thing to do if there is a thunderstorm.

Or just run home, and hope you don't get hit by it...
Less chance than being hit by a motorist on the bike round these parts... so its relatively safe...
Stress less...

Perhaps that's true - I agree, many of those locations are certainly not ideal. But I assume we can agree they're all quite a bit better than standing alone out in the middle of a bean field holding your bike.

Would I want to be under a picnic shelter when it gets hit by lighting? Hell no. But I'll take that option over getting directly hit myself. At the end of the day, lighting is merely an electrical charge looking for the shortest/easiest path to the ground. No one can predict exactly what will get hit and what won't, but (in the absence of any other options) I'll take the approach that puts a grounded structure in between me and the sky.

I was riding Waterville in that same storm. Nasty. You should see the river today, way high. Nowhere to go on 49 from the Village until Campton.