Now serious question. Should I have gone downstairs to watch telly instead or was I just as safe doing the 'net?
All answers will be considered, unless there has been realistic scientific testing...
bill
Serious Answer.
It depends.
If you have an outside TV aerial then the safest thing to do is unplug all of the the TV Sets, Freeview boxes and so on from the aerial.
If your mains is supplied via overhead cables you shoul unplug any electrical appliance you care about.
Lightening is the static electricity in the cloud going to earth. It takes the easiest path. Since most things like trees, houses etc are better conductors than air it will strike them if it can. Since metal is a better conductor than brick or wood IF it can it will go for your aerial and BANG you get several thousand may be millions of volts though your TV or Radio. They are not designed to withstand those sorts of voltages and so the bits inside get burnt to a crisp.
The safest place to be in a thunderstorm is somewhere else well away and not in the path of any flash flood that may occur as a result of the storm.
If you are in the storm then a saloon car is probably the safest place to be as long as there is nothing around that may fall and crush the car if it's struck by the lightening.
Planes are relatively safe in Thunderstorms. However no pilot in his right mind flies through a thunder storm the vertical winds make it very bumpy and can stress the airframe. Light aircraft can have problems climbing faster than the down draft so get put on the ground when they don't want to be on the ground.
t.
