Do Rubber Tires Protect You From Lightning

However the steel frame of a hard topped vehicle provides increased protection if you are not touching metal.

Do rubber tires protect you from lightning.

If you check out the graphic below you will notice how the current exits to the ground through the tires. Like trees houses and people anything outside is at risk of being struck by lightning when thunderstorms are in the area including cars. Bolts from the blue can strike 10 15 miles from the thunderstorm. The good news though is that the outer metal shell of hard.

Rubber soled shoes and rubber tires provide no protection from lightning. Rubber tires on a car protect you from lightning by insulating you from the ground. So the rubber tires on your car do not protect you from lightning they simply ground your vehicle so that the electricity has a place to exit. What keeps you safe while inside a car is the metal body surrounding you which creates a faraday cage.

Tires are too small to insulate a lightning strike. Being in a car doesn t guarantee 100 protection against a lightning strike just because of the fact that it has rubber tires that do not conduct electricity. Rubber is indeed an electrical insulator but your shoes or bike tires for instance are way too thin to protect you from a lightning strike. The truth is rubber tires don t prevent lightning strikes in the least bit.

Here s where your grandmother is right though your car is a fairly safe place to be in a thunderstorm but for a different reason entirely. The lightning follows the path of least resistance down the metal framework and into the ground. Lightning often strikes more than three miles from the center of the thunderstorm far outside the rain or thunderstorm cloud. Rubber does not protect you from lightning.

Whether it s a yokohama or a continental car tires don t protect you from lightning.