Tent Camping and Rain

[Chattown]

We will arrive at FW 2nd weekend in June. Tent camping and planning on bring fans to help at night. Is it too dangerous to use electrical items in tent at night if it rains? Stupid questions I know. Need advice on dealing with the rain. We are only staying 2 nights. Any rain advice is welcomed.

 

[maxiesmom]

No you can use electrical stuff in the rain. Just make sure you use an extension cord that is made to be outside and get wet. Also keep any place where the cord connects to your stuff dry. And if you get wet, do not touch any of your appliances until you are dry. Just use common sense and you will be fine. I have been camping in thunderstorms, and as long as you have a good watertight tent you are golden.

Have you tent camped before?

 

[mmcguire]

OP - I also wonder if you have tent camped before.

If not, you may not know about seam sealer and some sort of tarp or waterproof pad to set your tent up on. Sealing the seams needs to be done before you leave home -- you set up your tent, seal all the seams, and let it dry. You can also spray on a waterproofer to help keep water from dripping through the fabric if it pools.

We learned this after a most unfortunate first camping trip to Myrtle Beach in 1996. Severe thunderstorms rolled through during the night, and we were sopping water out of the bottom of our tent with towels. The campground looked like Beirut the next morning.

 

[Chattown]

Thanks for the advice. Our tent camping is mostly with the cubscouts and as you know, they are very limited. No electrical hookups. This will be the first time we can take a fan to keep cool. My DH is not too happy about the hot weather during June so a fan in the tent is a must. I just wanted to make sure we were going to be safe since everyone talks about the afternoon rain showers. Any other rain advice would be helpful. We did know about sealing the seams just not too much about using the electrical hookups during rains storms. Thanks