Can an indoor pool get struck by lightning?

Answer 1

Insurance companies seem to think so. I swim in an indoor pool that is in the LOWER level of an athletic center, and when the front desk hears thunder . . . out we go for 30 minutes! Stupid.

I have done extensive research on the web to find an answer to this question. In more than 450 cases I have looked at I have found only two in which one person, who was among others swimming in the ocean, was struck by lightning, and the other was a Scuba diver, and the lightning actually struck his tank while he was coming out of the water. The first guy was Surfing, so you might even say he was not technically in the water, but on it (perhaps making him more of a target?). I have also found that while people do not seem to be struck by lightning in the water, many, many are struck just after getting out of the water to take shelter. I've yet to find one in which people are struck by lightning in a swimming pool--recently or any time in the "ignorant" past when people "didn't know better" to get out of the water when thunder was heard.

The whole idea of a pool-full of people being killed or electrocuted from a single strike in the water is ridiculous. I know it sounds right, though, since water is a good conductor of electricity. I have even read some pretty stupid remarks by "experts" that claim when lightning hits the water it disperses throughout the entire body of water. This is simply not true and research shows that not to be the case (hey, where are the thousands of dead fish that should wash up on shore after a stormy afternoon at the beach?). No "expert" can actually tell the truth about this because it is "conventional knowledge" that you are not to be in the water when thunder is heard--and insurance companies wouldn't like it.

How about this one: I found one story in which a man was killed by a lightning strike while sitting in his boat (a common place for people to get struck) while his two friends, who were swimming next to the boat, looked on, completely unharmed!

Most people who are struck were hit while standing in the open, not under cover. And what happens when you get out of a pool? Hmmm, suddenly you are a lightning target standing in the open!

I've found many stories of people getting struck on a clear day, in their homes, in cars, laying on the ground, under trees, standing next to Swimming Pools--in short, all the places you are advised to go to take shelter. And only two of people being struck in the water (ocean, to be specific). There are probably more out there, but good luck trying to find them.

Perhaps, if proper research was conducted, it might actually turn out that we should all be diving into water when we hear thunder!

Answer 2

No. a lightning strike will not low up a pool it will either blow all the water out of the pool or it will generate electric shock so don't touch water after its been hit by lightining because it might give u an electric shock

Answer 3

Yes. That is why you should never go swimming during a thunderstorm.