Several years ago I was camping out in a ....tent. An old pup tent with aluminum poles at either end.
During the night it began to rain, then rain and thunder & lightening. Lightening was striking all around me. I was terrified of having one of the tent poles struck since my sleeping bag was wet and I was lying in water with what amounted to a lightening rod at head and foot.
There was a strike very close and it felt like ants were crawling all over my body for the next several hours. I would have given everything I had to be in a nice dry hammock up off the ground that night.
Steve
You're invited to visit my Blog: www.guideforgeezers.blogspot.com
"I Never knock on Death's Door. I Just ring the bell and run. He hates that"... Methusula
Gunner -- Sure glad I'm not one of your friends.
On topic: I'm no expert, but I believe electricity follows the most direct path to a ground. It seems to me that there is no safer place to be than in a hammock during a lightning storm. I'd bet that you would stand a better chance of getting fried laying in a tent on wet ground.
"I go because it irons out the wrinkles in my soul." -- Sigurd Olson
There is periodic discussion on this topic, but the bottom line seems to be that there is likely some minimal protection from lighting when you are in a tent on a non-conducting mat or in a hammock hanging by non-conductive supports. If the tree gets struck near you the sound may be deafening -literally, and the bark shrapnel could impale you whether you are in a tent or a hammock. Site selection is important for both enclosures and there is likely no particular advantage to either. That being said, you are not reading in the news everyday about hammockers being fried by lightening. Golfers, yes, hammockers, no. So don't play golf in your hammock during lightening storms.
-Mark
-SlowBro
"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."-Theodore Roosevelt
Thanks for the info
You have a better chance of getting struck by lightning than getting struck by lightning.
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