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Does a compass work in tunderstorms?

Has anyone ever been in the deep woods during a severe thunderstorms and had problems with their compass readings? To wet to use IPhone! What do you do? I was out on a deep woods hike recently and experienced this, pouring rain and thunder, everything looks the same in the rain, like snow. Just wondering if it was electricity in the air effecting the magnetic north of compass? I don't get turned around very often , I never doubt my compass, but I am still scratchin my head.

Never actually thought of this... and have never tried! I always have my compass in my pack while out hunting, but always tend to rely on my phone... i'm interested in hearing more.

Very interesting. I dont know the answer but am intrigued to find out. Few things will make you start panicking like not believing your compass when you are in the middle of nowhere haha

nothing worse than getting turned around in the big woods... scary feeling.

Here you go Ungie, I desperately needed to get some exercise with all that's been going on lately, feeling stretched and stressed . I have hiked this place many times before so it was not a new piece. It started out hot and humid when I set off after an hour it started slowly raining, then the thunder started so I held up under a big tree and took a compass reading, thundering really hard and close, I'm getting nervous now, north seemed to be opposite of south, Mmm? OK trust compass, I got to go North so I go North, after an hour of hiking in the pouring rain I come to a familiar landmark south of where I want to be! I went the wrong way! (At this point I should have taken another compass reading, I would have know if it was me or the compass! ) Anyway after another hour or so of pouring rain I made it back to the fields edge. Let me tell you I was happy to be back! Well, I fell and got scratched up , got soaking wet, got exercise, found a few old sheds and lived on the edge all in three short hours! Remain calm at all times, trust your compass! It had to have been operator error, or I got turned in the pouring rain! LOL Funny thing, I am no longer feeling stressed though! We all have had the misfortune of being "lost" at some point in our life's. I guess that's why I set out in the first place to seek the unknown, to seek answers, to find direction. I found what I was looking for, the feeling that even though I felt I was totally alone, I was not. Even a Bad Day in the Woods is still a Great Day! Lets here some more "Lost" stories! Ha Ha

Discipline

To my understanding, it's possible that they could briefly, but very short lived and not to a huge degree. Now, if you were relying on an ELECTRIC compass (gps/phone etc) perhaps the odds go up as the device could be rendered wonky for a bit. Ive seen Garmin's on bicycles do funny things when caught in a lightening storm - unless I really did pedal my bike 235 miles per hour :) ha ha ha!

With a good old fashioned magnetic compass... minimal and should not lead to being off course.

the fancier a device gets... IMO its not the electricity in the air but more likely a wet forest canopy, or high thunderstorm cloud interference. Low lying areas are also problematic for gps compasses, I got lost in a swamp in Taunton for several hours, and since then always carry an old fashioned Silva compass....its also handy when you get the "my compass must be broken" thoughts to double check.

What kind of compass is it? Maybe it's too low on liquid or were you perhaps holding it near anything metallic? There's that old adage about not holding it too close to belt buckles and such...

I wouldn't expect static to effect it at all, more likely it's not able to spin freely for one reason or another or something was interfering with a true reading.

Agreed Will, from what I read, there can be some interference , but it sounds like you would have to get hit by lighting or very close to its strike to de polarize magnetic north on your compass. MHH, I checked the same compass, a pin on ball one, and it works fine. Being in heavy snow or rain is very disorientating, it must be something to do with all the movement of the snow/rain that effects ones internal compass?

Did you see that hiker in Maui was found after two weeks? She left her phone in the car.

Broken compass thoughts... Ha - so so so true. I literally carry a GPS, my phone and a good old fashioned compass when I hunt. Most areas I go I know really well, so it's no biggie. But I like hitting new spots, and point blank, if you are even a little into the woods, if it's dark... You can get turned.

Heck, after tracking a deer my wife hit years ago we were all twisted up from the tracking. I had used the gps to follow the deers trail, and despite that, I was convinced the gPS was telling us the wrong way out. Had my wife not told me to trust the GPS, I would have kept walking till I hit the quabbin :) ha ha ha! Instead, I was 100yds from the car!

That affirmed for me, when it comes to way finding tools... you can not have to many backups for your backup!

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