Originally Posted by
Bertnl
I've been commuting in all seasons now, and experienced most of the elements. Rain is ok, snow is a little more annoying, cycling in tropic temperatures is awfull and so far I thought biking against extremely strong wind is the worst thing.
None of these made me ever think about quitting, I like commuting and cycling in general.
However, today I got caught up in a thunderstorm and I really scared the **** out of me. The ligtning hit very close several times. It was really terrifying.
My route is for 90% in the wide open. No possibilities for shelter at all. I really didn't know what to do and just kept going. Like I said it was a terrifying experience, and I'm seriously thinking about stopping commuting about it.
Are there people here with similair experiences?
I bet that was terrifying. It has the potential to be a pretty dangerous situation.
We have similar problems up here in the North and if I were to not try and dodge the weather especially in the late spring, I'd never get any riding in. There are a lot of good apps that you can get for your smartphone that show weather radar and even lightning strikes. Usually with thunderstorms, they pass thru quickly and you can get on with your ride. So it's not like a protracted problem where you're going to have ground strike lightning all day or something.
Some good apps on the iPhone that have lightning and/or good radar capability are MyCast, LightningCast, RadarCast. I've found them invaluable for just the problem you describe for cycling, for soccer when my kids used to play soccer (exposed fields etc...) and for sailboat racing/sailing. If you want terrifying, try sailing through ground strike lightning hanging onto the tiller of a sailboat that has a 30' aluminum lightning rod up in the sky.
So I think with thunderstorms and lightning, the biggest defense is knowledge and then judiciously adjusting one's schedule to accommodate the quick passage of a storm line.
J.