But of course they don't close the showers or drinking fountains.

I recall reading somewhere that the plumbing of the pool system is what makes the pool close, due to conductivity and such (if lightning struck the outdoor pump/tank system, it could conduct down the metal into the indoor pool). This is kind of antiquated now given the newer pool systems, but some pools still use the old rules. I know a lot of YMCA pools still have this rule. My pool does not.

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My current pool is YMCA and they don’t even have a notification system other than calling them which is annoying. Previous look at least used rainedout.net so I would get texts when pooled was closed and when it reopened.

I fought with local YMCA for years over this. IMO it’s a complete over reach. I haven’t looked in years but I never could find an example of lightening doing anything to an indoor pool.

From what I understand it has in some part to do with the pools plumbing not being grounded. But I think that’s an old tale. Also if that’s the problem as pointed out above why are the showers in use. Ironically they kick you out of the indoor pool for safety. Essentially sending you out into the storm.

The last go around I had with the Y went like this.

Please explain to me again why the indoor pool is closing for lightening outside

Y - for your safety. If the building gets hit you are in water and could be electrocuted.

You let people continue to use treadmills and if the building got hit couldn’t they get electrocuted or hurt ?

Y - that’s all grounded. The pool and plumbing isn’t.

Ok let’s assume it’s not even though the building was constructed in 2010 so if that’s in the code I’m sure it is. Why do you let everyone use the showers ?

Y- the other thing is electricity could come in through the door and shock everyone on deck. We are watching out for the life guards safety also !

Ok but again why keep showers open since it’s deck connects directly to the showers ? Seems to me you don’t think you could deal with shutting that much stuff down and dealing with that many members complaining ?

Y - look I really don’t know. You would have to contact the board maybe and ask them. I really can’t help you.

Sure you can help. Last thing , you realize that’s fireworks and not lightening right ! Look over there.

Y - oh , sorry we’ll get the pool opened right back up.

I grew up swimming year round so winter meant indoor swimming. HS and college I swam in a number of different states. Until I started swimming at a YMCA years ago I had never heard of this policy. I think it’s silly.

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"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "

Sense research I found about grounding issue. This YMCA was renovated like 2 years ago too. They already have limited lap swim times then living in the southeast with frequent thunderstorms makes it worse.

The insurance company that covers most YMCAs requires indoor pools to close if there is thunder or lightening. I am an aquatics director at a Y and it is a slightly frustrating policy, but safe than sorry. The insurance company says they have had one claim where someone was injured in an indoor pool because of a lightening strike. The insurance claims the low rates of incident because pools are cleared when there is lightening. It's not the best policy, but often it does not come down to the Y or the pool to make that call.

The Army closed their pools during thunder storms...hated it, but here's an article:https://www.nrpa.org/...ear-or-not-to-clear/

Basically says clearing indoor pools is irrational.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

I've been a college swimming coach and an aquatics center director, and I've had different rules.

When I was a college coach, I didn't want my swimmers to miss part or all of practice.

When I was a facility director and administrator in a new facility in a school district that had never had a dedicated position of director, I decided on the rules. In the case of an electrical storm, I kept the pool open, but inevitably had to close due to secondary issues. These were that the power would get knocked out, and it would be too dark to see the pool. The power supply was insanely poorly designed and buffered. We closed the pool when a squirrel got fried on a pole and when a lineman mishandled his line a few blocks away. He wasn't hurt, but before the grid could bypass the blockage, the power went out, the filters went out, the HVAC went out, and the HID likes needed time to cool and fire up again (20 minutes, but I alternated days on 1/2 of the lights, so I'd just turn on the unused set and we'd be ready as soon as I could fire up the pumps). Notably, we also closed not because of the electrical storms themselves, but because it was Oklahoma, and April-June storms bred twisters. I got everyone out not when the thunder was heard, but when the sirens went off. "Everyone, Quick!! Into the locker rooms, and if you're the praying sort, do so NOW!" Usually we didn't have to prompt people to get out once the sirens started. The siren was a block away. The western wall of the pool had nothing between it and Oklahoma City except 100 miles of Tornado Alley.

We hosted a meet pin which we prepared for the tornadoes. The thing about Oklahoma thunderstorm systems is that we know a few days in advance if the storms will pop up. The day before the predicted storms, I scouted out all the places in the building that were hardened for tornadoes. I also planned with coaches and officials to immediately cancel the meet should the storms get close. When we finally did so, we told the teams heading east that they could go, and they were out of there so fast and onto the turnpike that they left air vortices on their way out the door. The teams headed west hunkered down in the building, watching the weather radar i patched through to the pool scoreboard. Some brave souls headed to dinner, and ignored the storm.

At a Y I directed, my experience was of clearing the pool due to Y policy. Because I was constantly under-staffed, we didn't hesitate to close and get a break.

Currently, in Colorado, my indoor facilities do not close for electrical storms. We do, however, flock to the doors to see how big the hail is.

It's not about whether a pool is grounded, its about what path the electrical current takes to the ground. If lightning hits a building, the current will go around through the metal into the ground. it cannot go through an empty box (Farraday's Box). The plumbing is all pvc. The rebar in the concrete deck is already in the ground. At an outdoor pool, the vessel is out in the open, with no path around a box for the current to go through. Often the highest points near a pool are the flag poles, lifeguard chairs, and chain link fences.

I would love for them to provide evidence of that one incident !

Further I completely disagree with low rate because of pools being cleared. I’d argue and I have argued a majority of indoor pools do not clear. I also referred my local Y aquatics director to NCAA and US swimming association guidelines on the matter. (They could have changed. It’s been a few years since I fought this battle).

Not “shouting” this at you. Just an old argument that used to get me all riled up. That and my Ys aquatics director is truely horrible. You sound like your on the ball. She should have been fired years ago.

I’ve been a member at the Y for almost 30 years and the stupid lightening policy is Y I am switching to lifetime fitness. Well that and shitty aquatics director.

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"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "

we had thunderstorms early this morning and heavy rain from 4 am to about 9 am... went to the pool and it was running as normal

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I know this does not answer the question and I can see the argument going either way without some better data, I also get that the insurance liability is probably the main driver for any policy.


This also reminded me of a question i had for my cousin who is an electrical engineer years ago regarding how electricity "flows through" water. He was not sure at the time so periodically I would dig around for an answer. This experiment write up is one of the better ones:

http://analogengineering.com/lightning/surface.html




rich

I would be VERY interested to see if there had been lightening strikes to pools or gyms after people had been cleared from the water. Just strikes to the buildings themselves, and what the consequences were of the strikes. Did the current go around the empty space of the rooms through the support structure? Was anything on the pool deck or in the water damaged? I'd expect that the water itself might have been heated up by several million volts of power. Did the pump get fried? Did anyone get electrocuted while taking a shower? Because there is no policy of getting people out of showers or off toilets during a storm. Not that there's any way of testing it....

...unless the Mythbusters take it on! Here's the scenario: the guys wait for electrical storms, and rig up the building to take a direct strike with a lightening rod). They use pig carcasses in the indoor pool with test equipment to see what damage those received during the strike. Some of the carcasses are touching the pool bottom, some touch the lane ropes, some touch the metal gutters, some just float about.

I'm not making light of lightening strikes. In outdoor situations, those are killers, and start wildfires and kill fishermen and golfers. It just seems that indoor facilities have lots of protections.

This experiment reminds of those we did in the electricity and magnetism semester of college physics. And, the 2-D line diagram in the write-up is very typical of scientific articles. :)

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