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Holidaying in the tropics, I have come across the following behaviors which are all intended to reduce the likelihood of attracting a lightning strike when in a storm.

  • Turning off the CD player/radio in the car.
  • When sitting at home, on the porch outside, moving smartphones inside the house.
  • Disabling the automatic fill feature of the $2\times 250 \,\text{L}$ water bottles at the top of a $9 \,\text{m}$ water tower, for fear of damaging the water pump in the well below.

Do any of these behaviors have merit?

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  • $\begingroup$ I would guess the first 2 behaviors have little effect on lightning. 2. could be to simply protect phones from rain. 3. Having the machines offline may protect them from damage in the case of a lightning strike while not changing the probability of a lightning strike. $\endgroup$
    – shai horowitz
    Commented Aug 3, 2022 at 13:25
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    $\begingroup$ Many ham radio operators physically disconnect their antenna (on a big pole/tower) from their radio, but more to keep a strike from coming down into the house. If a device is not grounded, it is less likely to be struck and less likely to have significant current dumped through it, resulting in its death... $\endgroup$
    – Jon Custer
    Commented Aug 3, 2022 at 13:39

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