Lightning and humans

Being struck by lightning is one of those occurrences we consider highly unlikely. How often have you said, “You’re more likely to be struck by lightning than… (fill in the blank–win the lottery, for example). But for a surprising number of people every year, the unlikely becomes all too real.

The National Weather Service in the U.S. recorded 3,239 deaths and 9,818 injuries from lightning strikes between 1959 and 1994. That’s an average of 92 deaths and 280 injuries a year in the U.S. alone. Only flash floods and river floods cause more weather-related deaths. If you’re inclined to worry about becoming one of those statistics, you should worry even more if you happen to be a man: according to a study by Ronald L. Holle and Raúl E. López of the National Severe Storms Laboratory and E. Brian Curran of the National Weather Service, men are struck by lightning four times as often as women, accounting for 84% of lightning fatalities and 82% of injuries.

Men can, however, take comfort in the fact that the actual number of deaths and injuries from lightning strikes has decreased in the past 35 years. Holle’s team attributes 30 percent of the decrease in lightning deaths to improved forecasts and warnings, better lightning awareness, more substantial buildings, and socioeconomic changes. They attribute an additional 40 percent to improved medical care and communications.

As you can tell from the fact that there are three times as many injuries as deaths from lightning, being struck by lightning is less fatal than you might expect–only 20 percent of lightning victims are immediately struck dead. Those that aren’t have to hope their doctors are skilled in “karaunopathy,” the pathology of lightning

Most aren’t, unfortunately. They’re more likely to be familiar with electrical shocks, such as those received by industrial workers when they have an accidental run-in with high-voltage equipment. But lightning injuries aren’t the same. For one thing, the typical industrial electrical shock involves 20,000 to 63,000 volts, while a lightning strike delivers about 300,000 volts. As well, while industrial shocks rarely last longer than half a second, because a circuit breaker opens or the person is thrown back from the live conductor, lightning strikes have an even shorter duration, only a few milliseconds. Most of the current from a lightning strike passes over the surface of the body in a process called “external flashover.”

Both industrial shocks and lightning strikes result in deep burns at the point of contact. Industrial shocks sometimes destroy tissue along the entire current path, while lightning victims’ burns seem focused at the entry and exit points. Both industrial shock and lightning victims may be injured from falling down or being thrown. The leading cause of immediate death for both is cardiac or cardiopulmonary arrest.

If you survive a lightning strike, you still have to deal with the consequences of the electrical burns. Seventy percent of lightning survivors experience residual effects, most commonly affecting the brain, vision and hearing. These effects can develop slowly, only becoming apparent much later.

If you’d really like to find out for yourself what it’s like to be struck by lightning, your best bet is to go golfing. Specifically, you should go golfing on a Sunday in July around 4 p.m.–preferably in Florida, which has twice as many lightning casualties as other states. Two-thirds of lightning casualties occur between noon and 4 p.m., maxing out at 4 p.m. Sunday has 24% more deaths than other days, followed by Wednesday. Lightning reports reach their peak in July.

Many lightning victims had been walking in an open field or swimming before they were struck. Other lightning victims had been holding metal objects such as golf clubs, fishing rods, hay forks, or umbrellas. But even those not holding metal objects are as likely to be struck by lightning as a bronze statue of the same size.

Have you ever kept golfing after you heard thunder because the thunder was far away? You might want to rethink that policy. According to the experts, once you hear thunder, you are already within the range where the next ground strike may occur. To avoid being struck, you should seek shelter when you hear even the faintest thunder. Some of the best places to take refuge are enclosed buildings, or cars and buses (but don’t touch the metal!). If there are no safe spaces nearby, bend into a crouching position until there is a break in the storm.

Don’t seek shelter under isolated trees, telephone booths or pen structures like gazebos or porches. If there is a tall object nearby, move at least 2 meters away. Standing next to tall isolated objects like poles or towers makes you vulnerable to secondary discharges coming off those objects.

The increase in communication towers, incidentally, has increased the number of lightning strikes in certain areas, as one family in North Carolina knows all too well. In 1998, a 42 meter (138 ft) tall water tower was erected near Murfreesboro, NC, about 45 meters away from a farmhouse situated on a one acre plot in a large open area of farmland. The family had lived in the farmhouse for 10 years and never experienced any lightning damage. After the tower was erected, five separate discharges near the house occurred over a period of five months, killing two trees, starting a fire in their electrical equipment, destroying all their phone wiring and damaging their electrical fixtures.

In any contest between human and lightning, lightning wins. But you can minimize the danger: simply stay away from towers, avoid golfing, walking across the prairies or boating when there’s thunder around, and take shelter when it storms.

Oh, yeah, and if you can at all avoid it, don’t be a man.

Permanent link to this article: https://edwardwillett.com/1999/08/lightning-and-humans/

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