How to stay safe in a lightning storm
sir – Liz Wheeldon (Letters, June 14) discusses the possibility of electrocution when holding a fishing rod or a stick.
Height, shape and degree of isolation are the main factors that decide what will be struck by lightning. The presence of metal makes no difference. Sheltering under a tree is therefore not sensible; but whether you have, say, a golf club with you is irrelevant.
Frank Russell
Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire
sir – My wife, who has lots of qualifications relating to wandering around in mountains, says that, if lightning threatens, rucksacks and poles should be dumped and the walker or mountaineer should make themselves as small as possible some distance away.
Having carbon-fibre poles strapped to the side of a backpack and protruding upwards is a recipe for disaster.
Hugh Murray-gourlay
Langport, Somerset
sir – As a lightning protection consultant, I would like to assure Liz Wheeldon that a metal walking stick by one’s side is far less dangerous than a carbon-fibre fishing rod hoisted several metres above one’s head and over water.
However, if you are walking in hills or mountains and you hear thunder or see lightning, try to get down to a lower level, avoiding as far as possible any peaks and ridges. If you start to feel your hair standing up, or a tingling in your body, put your hiking stick flat on the ground a metre away and curl up in a ball.
For further guidance, look at websites, especially American ones. Rev Christopher Miles
Tonbridge, Kent