Chinese Mobile Phones Attracting Lightning Story Strikes Again

from the details-please...? dept

Mon, Aug 15th 2005 3:50am — Mike Masnick

About a year ago, we pointed to a story about people in China being struck by lightning on the Great Wall, where local officials were blaming the fact that they were using mobile phones. However, some quick additional research turned up that similar "hoaxes" had been flooding the internet for some time, and various experts pointed out that there was little in a mobile phone that would make it a target for lightning. In fact, many recommend that you use a mobile phone instead of a regular phone in a thunderstorm, as it's likely to be safer. However, that hasn't stopped the story from showing up again. Textually.org links to yet another story in China about a man at the Great Wall who was struck by lightning -- and again, his mobile phone is blamed. However, once again, the details are quite sketchy. The victim in question is never named. Also, why is it that this only seems to happen at the Great Wall? Isn't a much more likely explanation that standing on top of the Great Wall in a thunderstorm means that you're one of the highest objects around and therefore that much more likely to be struck by lightning in a storm?

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9 Comments

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Matt, 15 Aug 2005 @ 4:42am

No Subject Given
surely you aren't saying it is dangerous to stand on an enormous tourist attraction? It MUST be the phone to blame
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Peet McKimmie (profile), 15 Aug 2005 @ 5:47am

No Subject Given
I'd still leave room for the possibility that there aren't any mobile phone masts near the Great Wall, forcing the phones to emit the maximum amount of microwaves to maintain a connection; in a highly ionised atmosphere this *could* form a "trigger point" for a lightning strike. It's just a possibility...
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dorpus, 15 Aug 2005 @ 6:25am

How to black out your city
If you fly a kite with a long tail made out of aluminum foil near high-powered lines, your local power company will be very upset.
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Aaron, 15 Aug 2005 @ 6:55am

Re: No Subject Given
No, no it *could* NOT form a trigger point. There is no possible way that RF will make anything more prone to a lightning strike. Do some research on why lightning does what it does... It has absolutely NOTHING to do with radio frequencies.
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tym, 15 Aug 2005 @ 8:08am

Other things are more dangerous
What about, in 1999, the two women in London's Hyde Park whose deaths by lightning strike were attributed to the fact they were wearing underwire bras? Guess there are things more dangerous than mobile phones in a thunderstorm.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Aug 2005 @ 1:30pm

Re: No Subject Given
It's not like the RF is attracted to the phone, and an even dispersal even if it "formed a trigger point" wouldnt add to the probability of you being struck, it would just add to the lightning around. But I'll have to agree with the poster below, has nothing to do with RF.
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Denver, 20 Jul 2006 @ 2:49am

fdg
lightning scares me

is it normal for lightning to make lights in ur house dim until there is no light and then ligt re-appear suddenly???
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Mary, 22 Jul 2006 @ 7:45am

Re: Re: No Subject Given
During a thunderstorm I was walking along a side street with a pharmacy. It had a large neon sign saying "pharmacy" in the window. Just as I was passing the neon sign I could feel energy from the sign going all around me and arcing up into the air. The next second there was a white light, a bang and then what felt like a few seconds of blanked out silent whiteness. Then it stopped. I looked around to see if anyone had noticed. I wasn't hurt, the sign wasn't hurt. No one seemed to be around, so I just carried on with my day.
Would you say that I was struck by lightning?

I've been searching for this answer on the net for awhile.
Thanks, Mary
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Jeremy Brown, 27 Jun 2007 @ 5:46pm

Re: Re: Re: No Subject Given
I'm no expert, but I'd say if you have to ask, then you were not the victim of a direct hit. But as I understand it, there are all kinds of secondary effects before during and, perhaps just after, the actual lightning strike.

You might have experienced the "ground current" effect that happens near a strike.

I believe what you experienced just before the actual strike was a phenomenon where the electrical potential between the ground (or the ground connection of the neon sign) and the clouds was building up and doing whatever it does to the air between to 'attract' the actual lightning strike. But fortunately for you there must have been a more favorable path to ground somewhere just next to you (a lamppost or something).

I would think just being that close to a strike would probably send all kinds of semi-dangerous electrical fields through you, but a direct strike would have left you in no doubt that you'd been directly hit.

This page is very informative:
http://www.wildernessutah.com/brain/lightning.html
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