July 31, 2025, 11:13 am | Read time: 3 minutes
At the Wacken music festival, metal fans were advised to leave their tents as a precaution due to a thunderstorm. Why can it become so dangerous inside them?
When the campsite turns into mud rather than a place due to rain, and lightning and thunder are added to the mix, a tent is not a safe place. Especially when the storm warning already means “danger to life and limb.”
In fact, a tent offers no protection from a direct lightning strike during a thunderstorm, according to the Lightning Protection and Lightning Research Committee of the VDE Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies.
Camping During a Thunderstorm – What Experts Advise
Therefore, you should leave the tent before the storm and, if possible, seek shelter in a vehicle or building, advises the ADAC in its “PinCamp” magazine. If that’s not possible, the following applies:
- Do not touch the tent wall and tent poles, even if the storm is raging
- Crouch in the middle of the tent – as far away from the tent poles as possible
- Under no circumstances sit on the bare ground; instead, sit on a dry air mattress or a camping cot with a metal frame, avoiding contact with the metal and the ground
- According to the VDE, “Isomats” do not offer protection against lightning strikes
- Remove power cables and other cables leading into the tent
- Remove plastic plates or rubber caps at the pole feet for better grounding
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Why Is Camping So Dangerous During a Thunderstorm?
Lightning strikes the metal frame, can jump over or penetrate insulated areas – such as the tent floor – and usually discharges unevenly through the tent poles into the ground. This creates so-called voltage funnels in the soil around the tent poles, posing a risk of step voltage.
Additionally, there is a danger for people near the lightning-conducting frame: If the human body is better grounded than the adjacent tent pole, a spark can jump and cause a current to flow through the body.
Never Pitch Tents in Exposed Locations
The lightning protection experts of the VDE also recommend campers take preventive measures:
- Never set up tents, caravans, and trailers in exposed locations, such as on hills, directly next to poles and masts, at the edge of forests, or under solitary trees
- Maintain at least three meters of distance from neighboring tents and camping trailers
- Never run metal guy wires between tents or camping trailers
With material from dpa