I live in a apartment in Salem, MA and there is lightening, can it hit me inside?

Question

Also what does it do when it hits you or your apartment? I am really scared and I am 17, I just want to know if I am safe or not. Thanks

Answer 1

Well no one is 100% safe in lightening, but the safest place to be is inside so youre better off being in there then outside. If it makes you feel better, get in your car. They say you can't get struck by lightening in cars because of the rubber tires but I doubt that's true. Lightening is SOO huge and strong and powerful, I think it can plow through tiny rubber tires.

(Hey, I wonder if you live in the same building as my cousin, haha)

Answer 2

Lightening would be attracted to the highest object to which it is electrically attracted (oppositely charged).

If you were running around on a treeless plain or pasture, I would worry.  But you are the least likely to be the most attractive target to a lightening storm within your apartment in a large city, even if you live on a top floor penthouse.  Even less likely the closer to the ground you are.  There are just too many other attractive targets for the lightening.

People erect Lightening rods as metallic poles having the greatest height to a structure.  The metal is a good conductor, and it is grounded to the earth to represent the state of the earth's (soil's) charge, to which a ground strike might occur.  Lightening occurs when there is a charge difference created by many factors (particularly swirling particles in a dry wind often high in the clouds that often precedes lightening storms) that must be overcome by an arcing process, which is what lightening is...an electrical arc.

Here's more info you should read:

http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/primer/lightnin...

http://science.howstuffworks.com/lightni...

http://ellerbruch.nmu.edu/classes/cs255w...