A reporter reached out to me recently with a question families have argued over for generations. Can you shower during a thunderstorm? It sounds like an old wives’ tale, the kind of warning a grandmother passes down without ever explaining why. The honest answer ran in Martha Stewart, and it surprised a lot of readers. No. You should not.
I spent more than twenty years as a federal emergency management official, coordinating disaster response for more than fifty million people across multiple states and territories. In that work I learned something that shapes everything I teach now. The threats that hurt families most are rarely the dramatic ones on the news. They are the ordinary moments we never think twice about. Stepping into a warm shower while the sky lights up outside is exactly that kind of moment.
Why a shower during a storm is a real risk
Here is what most people do not realize. Lightning does not have to strike your house directly to reach you. It can strike the ground nearby and travel through your home’s plumbing. As I told Martha Stewart, metal pipes conduct electricity directly, and even the water inside PVC pipes is conductive.
This is not theory. The CDC, the National Weather Service, and FEMA all warn against using showers and baths during active thunderstorms. About one in three lightning injuries happen to people who are indoors. The shower, the kitchen sink, the bathtub. Anywhere water and pipes meet your hands becomes a path.
What to do instead
Build the response into your family’s plan before the next storm, not during it.
- When you hear thunder, stop using running water. No showers, no baths, no dishes, no washing hands.
- Stay off anything corded and plugged into the wall, including landline phones. Cell phones are fine.
- Keep away from concrete floors and walls. Current can travel through the metal rebar inside them.
- Wait thirty minutes after the last clap of thunder before you turn the water back on. This is the part people rush. Do not.
The goal is simple. When the moment comes, no one in your house has to stop and wonder. Everyone already knows.
Federal Insider Note
The riskiest stretches of any thunderstorm are the very beginning and the very end, when the storm feels far enough away to relax. That is precisely when people reach for the faucet. A family plan removes the guesswork so your safety never rides on a judgment call made in the dark.
I do not teach preparedness to make families afraid of the weather. I teach it so the weather stops having the final word. Knowing one small thing, like waiting out a storm before you shower, is what turns fear into a plan you can actually live by. That is the whole idea. Prepared. Not paranoid.
Build your family’s storm plan
When the storm hits, the first question every family asks is the same: who do I call? Do not let that answer live in your head alone. The free Nationwide Disaster Contact Directory puts every state emergency management agency, every FEMA regional office, and every federal disaster hotline in one printable document, before you need it.
Ready to build the complete plan? The Operation Prepare Foundation Binder ($147) gives you the full family readiness framework in one place.
Source: Read the full Martha Stewart feature, Can You Shower During a Thunderstorm?
Brandi Richard Thompson is a former federal emergency management official. Operation Prepare is an independent business and is not affiliated with or endorsed by FEMA or the federal government.