We used to summer in the hills over lake como, amazing storms.

@dazh – thunderstorms, yes – I wasn’t expecting massive hail though!

Well I think the size of the hail is simply a function of the strength of the storm. Interestingly there are various bits of research that suggest this is likely to get worse with climate change…

http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2421311/our_future_summers_thunderstorms_and_flash_floods.html

explode?

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7Xd7nHBfDA[/video]

Carry on the tyres will provide enough insulation

It’s only travelled a mile through the air, 25mm of rubber ought to be enough to stop it.

Just don’t stand under a potential conductor. It’s not direct strikes that tend to kill, it’s the potential difference across the contact points on the ground. It only takes milliamps to stop the heart.

If it’s striking all around you or you can feel or hear the potential strike – buzzing sound from metal objects, hair standing up, get off and away from the bike, kneel down with your arse sticking in the air higher than your head and torso. Provides a direct route for any strike away from your heart and brain.

It’s only happened to me once when moutaineering. Terrifying.

Bizarrely, I faced this very dilemma out with a couple of lads about two hours ago.

yeah got caught in a storm last night, got off the hill quick. Dropped though a wood so couldn’t see the lightening but the thunder sounded very close. Pretty awesome really.

I did a season in the dolomites and had a few close calls, worst of which was being stuck on a via ferata as a storm came over. Figured we ‘d rush to the top and get down asap but the storm centred on the summit right as we topped out. “fortunately” there was a cave on the summit to shelter in… Turns out not so fortunate as lightning struck the summit and it felt like a bomb went off in the cave, one guy knocked to his feet and dazed right next to an opening which dropped sheer 100’s of metres down. Never been so scared or felt so lucky to be alive. Or run down off a mountain so quick…

Offer to give Hora a piggy back?

and when they find our bodies burned and fused together they’ll say

”ere that fat bloke looked like he was fair old riding that other fat bloke hard when they were caught out in the thunderstorm’….

At the funeral it’ll be uncomfortable, an unspoken ‘why/what Daddy was doing when he died’

whilst our ghosts are shouting ‘no no its was nothing like that it was a piggy back’!

Dickie back, you say? 😉

yeah got caught in a storm last night, got off the hill quick. Dropped though a wood so couldn’t see the lightening but the thunder sounded very close. Pretty awesome really.

Basically run for cover and dont stand at the highest point watching it roll in 😉

It was impressive though and very very loud