If lightning hits in or near a pool?

Question

What would happen? Would it be safe to go in the pool after the storm of course if not how long would you have to wait, would the water have and electrical current for any amount of time?

Answer 1

Never go in the pool, during a storm, with lighting and thunder. Lighting is always trying to find the closest way to get to the ground.

But, it only has the current while the bolt of lightening is hitting the pool.

It is safe to go back in the pool as long as you know there will be no more storms.

Good Luck :]  

Answer 2

It is certainly not safe to be in the water at the time. You will suffer all the normal dangers of being struck by electricity with the added bonus that you will be in the water and likely to drown.

However, after the storm, even if the water was struck, it should be safe to enter. Water cannot carry a static charge (technical reasons below) and immediately after the strike, all danger will have passed.

Electrical current has to be driven by a voltage differential, such as the difference in voltages between the ground and a storm cloud. When lightning hits the water in a pool, the current will try to follow the path of least resistance to the positively-charged earth around the pool. Unless I'm mistaken, most pools with filtration systems include a simple metallic grounding device that quickly redirects the current out of the water and into the ground.  

Answer 3

I saw only one instance, first hand, of a swimming pool that had been struck by lightening.  It was an in ground pool.  The only thing that was apparent was the filtering system was burned out and the pool was about one third empty.  There is no stored energy in the water.

*