Is really dangerous to shower or wash hands when it's thunder and lighting and the storm is very close?

Question

I thought the cold water pipe has a wire which runs to a lighting pole in the ground to prevent electrocution.

Answer 1

yes it is very dangerous as if you have copper lines inside and out of your home, all the lightning has to due is hit a nearby water source and here comes 40,000 volts of pure energy via the water and since copper is an excellent conductor of electricity, no wire no matter how big is going to stop mother nature from doing some damage especially if you are in the shower or any sink connected to that line, of course the lightning loses energy over distance and number of paths followed, but I sure wouldnt want to try and guess where I am on that path and just how good was that electrician when he wired my house that day?

Answer 2

My best friend is an electrician and he always told me that showering/thunderstorms was a folklore.
So once, I was in the basement shower when a thunderstorm rolled in. I thought I was safe. Suddenly I heard a bang and the next thing I know I was trying to pick myself up off the floor. It literally knocked me out and down.
Came to find out that lightning can go into the ground, and hit the piping and water sources including a basement. In that case not even a ground wire has no effect.

Answer 3

being a master electrician for almost 30 years, hehe if your worried about it enough to ask this, then it doesnt matter what anyone says here because you wont take a shower in a storm anyways. But electricity is a funny thing, so is mother nature. When you team them up NO ONE on earth knows what can happen! So any answer here is meaningless. By the way, electricity can also come in thu a window and hit you that way also, so it doesnt matter what you do, if its your time its your time, but then again dont be foolish to stand in the middle of a field with an umbrella up in a lightning storm!

Answer 4

You are fine! The plumbing on the home is grounded by what is called a UFER ground where a ground wire is run from the pipes into the ground. Don't worry about electrocution under these circumstances.

Answer 5

Dont even go in the bathroom or kitchen. There was a Mythbusters show about this and it was really scary how the lightning was so powerful that it just jumped from pipe to pipe regardless of the tiny grounding wires.

Answer 6

There is no possible way to get hurt in the shower during a thunderstorm, unless you re showering outdoors during the storm. The water coming out of the spout doesn't have enough pressure to make a stream capable to carry any electricity. Also, the shower heads are made of plastic. They won't conduct electricity.

Answer 7

Thats bull I have taken showers talked on the phone during storms all my life, And I live in Florida the lightning capital of the world

Answer 8

Showerring during a storm is dangerous. But there is little risk with hand-washing.

Answer 9

Yes, it is dangerous. Maybe nothing will happens to you because the probability is very small, but there is several examples of fatal accidents like that. You always can avoid it if pay attention in such occasions.

Answer 10

yes because lightning can go from metal to an electric sorce and your refering to grounding wire and if there is a grounding wire that is grounded properly you should be safe.