From the looks of my pool, it almost seems the guards will use anything as an excuse to clear the pool. When i was young’n this rule never existed for indoors…then again we didnt wear bike helmets either.
We ignore the thunder outdoors until it’s right over us.
Our indoor pool doesn’t close for storms. Most likely, it’s the policy of the management to close the pool…the lifeguards just do what they’re told.
Some states, and a lot of cities, have laws/codes dealing with pool use during thunderstorms…
I doubt that there is any risk in an indoor pool. The only way lightning would get into the water would be through the pipes and they’d act as a ground for the lightning.
What would be more dangerous is talking on a landline while there is a lightning storm.
LOL…I’ve often wondered this as I’ve been cleared out of the pool many of times only to go get in the steam room and shower. So I can get electrocuted in the pool but not the shower??? Makes absolutely ZERO sense.
Random find via google search - not certain of the source so proceed cautiously…
NOTICE – To YMCA members and management CLOSING INDOOR SWIMMING POOLS
DUE TO THUNDER AND LIGHTNING
SARASOTA, FLORIDA, June 23, 2008 - Literally thousands of YMCA members across the USA are stopped from using their facility’s indoor swimming pool until 20-30 minutes after the last rumble of thunder has died away in the distance or since lightning was last spotted anywhere on the horizon. Is this YMCA policy sensible or is it unnecessarily inconveniencing thousands of persons, many of whom schedule their exercise but are reasonable enough to appreciate a policy important for their safety?
Lightning strikes almost anywhere. It prefers tall solitary trees. That is why standing under a tree during an afternoon thunderstorm on a golf course, for example, can be fatal. Lightning has been known to come into homes via the telephone line or the pipes in the plumbing. Deaths have occurred to persons on the phone or in the bathtub when lightning struck nearby. It can come out of a clear sky and strike persons lying on the beach. It strikes persons in the shower, in parking lots, and in boats and automobiles. When lightning is around, no place seems totally safe.
According to John Jensenius of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service, over the past 30 years lightning has killed more people in the U.S. than tornados or hurricanes. INDOOR SWIMMING POOLS Safety “experts” point out that a bolt of lightning hitting a nearby utility pole COULD travel via the electrical circuits to the pool’s pump and throughout the water. In such a scenario persons swimming in the indoor pool as well as persons within a damp pool enclosure COULD be electrocuted. You can search the databases of indoor pool deaths and those of deaths by lightning compiled ever since such statistics have been recorded and fail to find even a single death resulting from this scenario. However, it COULD happen, they warn – booga booga! Don’t think for a minute that risk assessment in this situation is based on mortality experience. It is purely hypothetical.
Electrical engineers, physicists, and other scientifically educated persons who have considered the possibility of swimming-pool mass electrocutions do not blindly agree on that hypothetical scenario. One YMCA Aquatic Professional observes, “Even the YMCA of the USA has made recommendations that indoor pools close, but no one is asking for proof!” One young scientist observed,“What are the chances that a strike will transfer to water? Sure you can have a pool/facility tested for bonding/grounding, but what if they are not grounded? Remember, the electricity would have to travel from the strike, down the structure and then jump from the structure (water line, electrical line, etc.) to a CLOSED LOOP re-circulation system (most are PVC, and are located below ground) to even enter the pool water. A person showering indoors stands a better chance of getting electrocuted!”
There are numerous statistics pertaining to lightning, its damages, its deaths and injuries, strike locations, etc. We have mentioned some of the documented dangers of lightning. Lightning can strike anywhere. Surely, given the “fact” that indoor swimming pools pose such a risk, some foolish persons have paid the ultimate price in indoor pools during inclement weather when lightning struck. Have they? We cannot definitely claim the answer to be “no’ anymore than we can say that little green aliens do not exist in our solar system. We have yet to find them.
Oddly, indoor swimming pools seem to be one place where lightning does not take its toll, making them, statistically, one of the safer places to be during an electrical storm. We know that lightning strikes as far as ten miles from the center of a thunderstorm. Doesn’t it just make good sense to get people out of the pool and keep them out until the storm is many miles distant? When one is armed with facts, the answer is clearly “No”. To answer otherwise one must begin with premises such as “you can never be too safe”, or “better safe than sorry”. Such premises effectively discourage nearly all activities other than sitting at home and watching TV. Let’s not pretend that this constitutes reasonable risk management. Has anyone requested proof of risk?
The inconvenient fact is that there has not been even one death recorded as a result of swimming indoors during a lightning storm. “We could find no reports of deaths or injuries in indoor pools related to lightning causes,” says Richard Kithil of the National Lightning Safety Institute and Kevin Johnston, a senior consultant. Yet, this same Richard Kithil goes on to recommend evacuating an indoor pool and pool area should lightning or thunder occur within 6-8 miles and waiting 30 minutes from last observations of either thunder or lightning before permitting persons back into the pool area. He points out that just because we haven’t found statistical evidence of indoor pool deaths doesn’t prove that such tragedies have not occurrred - booga booga! Mr. Kithil is a professional safety consultant (to the YMCA?). What is going on here? Is this CYA?
Remember, lightning has killed more people over the past 30 years than tornados and hurricanes. Among scores of lightning victims, given the popularity of indoor swimming, surely there has been at least one careless swimmer killed or injured by lightning while nonchalantly doing his laps or soaking in an indoor swimming pool when lightening struck. We have not found even a single death (or injury) by lightning in an indoor swimming pool since such record keeping began! How dangererous a place is an indoor swimming pool really?
“Safety experts” and “aquatic consultants” agree that one cannot be too careful and humans must “Stay out of the water!" When they are questioned in this matter, the story of two boys killed by lightning in 2000 at an OUTDOOR swimming pool in Florida sometimes arises. The tragedy did not occur because lightning struck nearby and the pool water was electrified. The boys were sitting on the edge of a swimming pool and dangling their legs in the pool when they were struck directly. Remember that ligntning strikes anywhere. If the boys had been struck while at a miniature golf area I suppose the experts would recommend evacuating indoor miniature golf areas during thunderstorms. What is going on here? Does this remind you of Chicken Little?
We found a single documented case of lightning striking an indoor swimming pool in which twenty persons were swimming. The lightning did not strike nearby and need to follow a circuitous route to the pool water. A bolt of lightning came through an open window and was seen to strike the surface of the pool itself on Tuesday, July 18, 2000. CBS News reported the event the following day in Beaupré Quebec, Canada. None of the twenty persons in the pool at the time of the lightning strike were killed or seriously injured in this shocking incident. It is not surprising that lightning, which strikes almost anywhere, would at some time randomly strike an indoor pool. If you happen to die in an indoor pool you will become immortalized as the first person on record to depart this earth as a result of being in an indoor swimming pool when lightning struck. Don’t let this happen to you - booga booga!
Some conclusions are counter-intuitive. Logic and facts seldom prevail, especially when “Everybody out of the water!” has such a commanding, authoritative, and care-giving ring to it. Once out of the water, where will you go next? Above all, do not head for the showers! The numbers are infinitely worse there than in the pool. And forget about leaving the building, walking across a parking lot, or driving home. You may actually have been safer in the swimming pool. Don’t bother trying to persuade the lifeguard. He will probably give you all sorts of warnings about being in the water when lightning is spotted or thunder is heard (even miles away!). Isn’t it nice to have someone who cares? The guard might tell you, more accurately, “It’s just YMCA policy and I risk being fired if I don’t evacuate the pool.” Personally, I would rather have my swim. Wouldn’t you?