"We're going to see more extreme weather over shorter time periods," Blumenthal says. This mission is especially important given the accelerating pace of climate change, which results in more frequent and severe storms. Cooper's new initiative, the African Centers for Lightning and Electromagnetics Network (ACLENet) is focused on reducing lightning deaths for both people and livestock across the continent. Now, Cooper and Blumenthal hope to bring a similar level of awareness, as well as resources such as lightning rods, to Africa. In 2022, that number had dropped to 19, according to the Insurance Information Institute. saw around 55 lightning deaths on average per year. Since 2001, the Council has held an annual Lightning Safety Awareness week to draw attention to the dangers of lightning strikes. Today, lightning deaths are relatively rare in the United States, thanks in no small part to the efforts of Cooper and her fellow members of the National Lightning Safety Council.
Why do some fruits and vegetables conduct electricity? Did Benjamin Franklin really discover electricity with a kite and key? Why does electricity make a humming noise? As the positive charge builds up, it sends a "tendril" of charged air into the sky, which an electric shock travels down. The final 10% to 12% of lightning injuries are caused by the odd phenomenon of upward streamers, when positively charged electrical forces on the ground become attracted to negatively charged storm clouds overhead.
Related: What's the longest lightning bolt ever recorded? "This is why whole herds of animals get wiped out by lightning," Blumenthal told Live Science. These incidents can harm multiple bodies at once. Ground current is similar, except it happens when lightning strikes the ground beneath the victim's feet. In a side flash, the victim is standing near an object when it gets struck by lightning, causing some of the electric potential to "splash" over onto the bystander. The most common lightning injuries are from side flashes and ground current, which together cover more than 80% of lightning trauma. Contact injuries, which occur when a person is touching an object - such as a tree or building - when it is hit with a lightning bolt, account for another 5% of lightning injuries. "And don't come out until there's been no lightning and no thunder for 30 minutes."īlumenthal cautioned that only between 3% and 5% of lightning strikes are direct hits.
If you find yourself outside during a thunderstorm, simply "run like hell to a safe space," Cooper said. Mashburn runs an international support group for lightning survivors.įortunately, lightning injuries are among the most preventable in the developed world. Suicidal thoughts are another symptom experienced by some lightning survivors, who can experience severe pain and recovery problems following the event, Steve Mashburn, whose back was broken in a 1969 lightning stroke, told The Washington Post. He died by taking his own life in 1983 at the age of 72. Though he sustained burns from his hair and clothes catching fire, he survived all seven strikes. Between 19, Sullivan was struck by lightning seven separate times. The world record for most lightning injuries is Roy Sullivan, a park ranger for Shenandoah National Park. However, the figures were painless, he reported, and were gone two days later when he returned to the doctor. In a 2020 case report from The New England Journal of Medicine, a 54-year-old man struck by lightning was described as initially stuporous, with numbness over parts of his body and Lichtenberg figures on his left arm and thigh, back and buttocks. Some survivors report fernlike "Lichtenberg figures" on their skin, which are thought to arise from damaged blood vessels leaking fluid into the surrounding tissue. (Image credit: The New England Journal of Medicine ©2023) Lightning left painless "Lichtenberg figures" on the back of a 54-year-old man, according to a case report in the The New England Journal of Medicine.
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