■ There is no safe place outdoors when a thunderstorm is nearby.
■ The vast majority of lightning victims were going to a safe place but waited too long before seeking safe shelter.
■ More than 80% of lightning fatality victims are male, typically between the ages of 15 and 40.
■ Lightning fatalities are most common during summer afternoons and evenings.
■ The energy from one lightning flash could light a 100-watt light bulb for more than 3 months.
■ Many wildfires in the western United States and Alaska are ignited by lightning.
■ The channel of air through which lightning passes can be heated to 50,000°F—hotter than the surface of the sun! The rapid heating and cooling of the air near the lightning channel causes
Summer is the peak season for one of the nation's deadliest weather phenomena— lightning. But don't be fooled, lightning strikes year round. The goal of this Website is to safeguard U.S. residents from lightning. In the United States, an average of 55 people are reported killed each year by lightning. To date, there have been 23 deaths in 2011. Find out the sad facts about lightning deaths in previous years.
Hundreds of people are permanently injured each year. People struck by lightning suffer from a variety of long-term, debilitating symptoms, including memory loss, attention deficits, sleep disorders, chronic pain, numbness, dizziness, stiffness in joints, irritability, fatigue, weakness, muscle spasms, depression, and more.
All information obtained from the National Weather Servicehttp://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/
