Look around on the Internet and you'll definitely see how a lot of electrical systems in Brazil are not quite up to North American standards. Grounding is part of it.
Also, rural household wiring is often dogshit all around the world with many places having bad earthing.
cellular devices and radios do not emit ionizing radiation - which is the kind that messes up cells, and nonionizing radiation can only increase heat which is why all devices operate under a power limit
people are studying other potential biological effects of nonionizing radiation and there is zero consensus of there being any. so some people, including some smaller government agencies, exercise caution
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/coil-mattresses-cause-canc...
What is known:
https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/r...
Also, lighting is not simple mathematical electricity. It is subject to innumerable, even quantum, fluctuations at the precise moment it chooses to move. Lighting also partially creates its own path as it ionizes air/water into plasma. That's why bolts are jagged and not smooth beams between cloud and ground. It may or may not choose to go through or around you. It is best to avoid needing to ask such questions.
And don't forget that an instantaneous discharge of 10,000A will also create a tremendous magnetic field which will immediately collapse, creating voltages that will induce eddy currents in conductors (such as the aforementioned bags of saltwater) that are near the main current flow.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2025/04/22/showering...
gift link: https://wapo.st/3GjjuO2
Better to not have your laptop or phone plugged in at all when using it during a storm.
Edit: come to think of it that's when I moved to New England so it could just be the nonexistence of lightning here. Which I do miss.
I've only seen rods - likely the easiest solution but also maybe I've not had much exposure to newer builds.
Grounding in very dry areas is more tricky, so US legislation will likely be different in very dry areas - maybe requiring a maximum resistance and testing?
AFAIK in New Zealand neutral is not tied/bonded to earth at the house but only at the substation. That's to (1) avoid the house earth floating to mains voltage in a specific double fault situation (neutral return failed open circuit plus house earthing failure equals danger since the outside of metal appliances are usually earthed), and (2) avoid corrosion due to long term leakage currents. We've also got less tingly 240 Volts here.
I tried to search for some better info on earthing but only found an unreliable source that said:
There is not one standard ground resistance threshold that is recognized by all agencies. However, the NFPA and IEEE have recommended a ground resistance value of 5.0 ohms or less. The telecommunications industry has often used 5.0 ohms or less as their value for grounding and bonding.
From comment about UK having three earthing standards:
TT - Terre Terre or Earth/Earth, where the installation earth is actually connected directly to earth via an earth rod or similar and only phase and neutral run back to the transformer. Very common still with older housing stock, particularly with older overhead cables, though things are gradually being upgraded. The earth in a TT system is high impedance and unlikely to pass enough current to blow a fuse under fault conditions, so a separate safety device must also be fitted which these days is an RCD, and there are all sorts of rules for that
TN-S - Terre Neutral - Separate, where the installation earth is connected to an earth installation at the transformer, where the neutral is also earthed. This earth is usually conducted over the metallic sheath of an underground cable and can blow fuses without the help of an RCD, though RCDs are mandated domestically for other reasons too
TN-C-S - Terre Neutral - Combined - Separate, where the installation earth connects to the supply neutral at the service cutout of the installation (and nowhere else), while the neutral is grounded not just at the transformer, but for obvious safety reasons at several points along its path to your house too.If it sounds like a bad storm, I'll start unplugging other electronics.
I thought I was doing overkill abundance of caution, but maybe it's actually a good idea.
Out in Seattle, though, if there is a single crack of thunder, everyone is at the windows trying to see what happened. It is almost comical on how this place never really gets a storm.
Does make me somewhat at odds with the crowds that hate firework noise, "because it scares pets." I'm in agreement that it is just obnoxious and I don't miss it. I'm pretty sure thunder was far more frightening for any pets I had, growing up.
All that is to say, probably wise advice on unplugging things. I know that quality of power has gotten a lot more relevant in recent years, such that you should only be worried about very local events. Still, seems safe enough not to take a risk, if you can avoid it.
Two of my family members have had devices fried by lightning strikes over the years, and not even in regions known for the worst electrical storms.
I keep some portable battery packs handy in case I need to charge a phone, and if I'm working will switch to my laptop and tablet screens.
Of course, one can't conveniently unplug everything (HVAC, big kitchen appliances, etc.) but it's easy enough to safeguard work and lifestyle electronics.
Turning the TV off and listening to the storm is usually a nice change of pace, too.
What if you're out somewhere, do you drive home in a bad storm and unplug it all?
The device itself usually has shielding, capacitors, transient suppressors, etc… as well as usually designed to make a poor antenna so on it’s own it will be affected much less than when charging
Surge protectors do work, mind you - but only for weaker storms or pulses coming in from the outside power lines. Just by physically being separated from the final device they are limited in how much they can protect from direct coupling
There is also a risk of electrocution when unplugging a device during a storm.
If we're traveling overnight we'll unplug things before leaving, but otherwise, no rushing home out of concern for the TV :)
Sadly I've still been too lazy to upgrade my surge protectors lol
So, rural areas without lightning rods nor any other safety mechanism. Good study that can save lives by taking prevention measures in rural areas in developing countries. But it will probably not affect anybody living in New York.
There are vast swathes of American rural land with too-few and far between lightning rods. Maybe not in NY, I wouldn't know, but near as I can tell no U.S. state requires the installation of lightning rods in rural areas.
Increased lightning makes sense, but I'd still have expected most climate-related deaths to be caused by flooding, heat waves, disease & crop failures, with lightning being a much smaller factor. Do they just mean it's in the top 5 or 10 climate-driven causes, or is lightning really killing people on the same (or greater) scale as these other things?
mike-the-mikado•9mo ago