Have you ever taken a shower or bath during an electrical storm?

I’ve heard this rumor, and I too question it’s validity. I mean, if electricity can’t travel up a stream of urine (See mythbusters) I’m pretty sure it couldn’t travel through a shower stream. Perhaps through the drain? In either case, I’ve taken a shower in a storm before, and.. well, you see?

I’ve heard of this before too. I do shower during electrical storms. It always gives me a thrill. I’m going to stop following this question. I’m almost sure it’s a myth, but I don’t really want to know for sure. It would take the fun away.

If this was a serious problem, there would be public service announcements telling you about it. Then again, even if it wasn’t a serious problem there would be PSAs. The fact that there are no PSAs about this issue, let alone the fact that this is the first time I’ve heard about it, makes me believe there is no veracity to this claim.

According to Mythbusters, even if a strong electrical charge did come down your pipes (they proved this impossible, too), it would have no chance of jumping from the shower head, down the stream of water, to your head.

There’s a lot of stuff out there I hadn’t checked on prior to this. You may be right, you may not be. It looks like it depends on the age of the house, the type of plumbing, whether you’ve got your hand on a metal faucet, and plain old bad luck. Also, metallic impurities in modern water supplies can seemingly carry electrical current even through pvc.

Here are a few places to look, among many:

http://www.kent.edu/publicsafety/eguide_storm.cfm

http://agsafety.tamu.edu/LIGHTNING%20SAFETY.pdf
http://www.labsafety.com/refinfo/techlines/tchln0606.pdf
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3246553&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312
http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/pdfs/Mark_trail.pdf

I’d think it would depend on the type of tub, too. I wouldn’t do it in my cast iron claw-foot tub!

@Eambos they did say it was plausible. Episode 30

My ex didn’t think it was dangerous to shower during thunderstorms. One time, though, we had our fence struck by lightning. I watched it make a sparkly fireball and roll the length of the chain link fencing. When I ran in to tell him that we had been hit, he was standing in the shower with a shocked expression on his face. He said that the water had turned to sparks. He became a believer!
He also needed a second shower, after getting the “bejeebers” scared outta him!

@Divalicious are you serious! That’s the only first hand account of this I’ve ever heard. I’ve never heard any other such story. That’s more than mere plausibility.

Yep, totally serious. It was an old house with metal pipes, etc. Maybe PVC water pipes would make a difference.

There are a few reasons why you shouldn’t worry. The first is, your plumbing is grounded.

The second is that copper and other metals are more conductive than your regular fresh water in your house.

So what if you have copper piping like we do.