According to calculations on NOAA's National Severe Storms Laboratory website, there is a one in 3,000 chance of getting killed or injured by lightning in your lifetime, assuming an average life span of 80 years. Lightning kills an average of 55 people every year, Buchanan said, but it hits and severely injures hundreds more. NEWS: Thunder Could Help Track Lightning on Titan Over the course of a year, 25 million bolts strike the ground, usually during thunderstorms but also during intense forest fires, heavy snowstorms, volcanic eruptions, nuclear detonations and large hurricanes. That amounts to an average of 1,800 storms happening at any given moment. If you remain outdoors during a thunderstorm, you are taking a gamble that you won't become one of the statistics."Įvery year, according to the National Weather Service, the Earth experiences 16 million thunderstorms. "There's no safe place outdoors in a thunderstorm.
"When thunder roars, go indoors, and stay in there for 30 minutes after you hear the last thunder clap," said Susan Buchanan, spokeswoman for the National Weather Service in Silver Spring, Md., and a member of the agency's lightning safety team. At the top of the list: Avoid exposing yourself to it.
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RELATED: What Causes Upside-Down Lightning?Īs 11-year-old Wehrle recovers from a broken arm and a burn mark on her shoulder, it may be a good time to refresh your memory about how to protect yourself from lightning. Scientists refer to these wayward streaks of electricity as "bolts from the blue," since it often seems as though the lightning comes out of a clear blue sky. In some cases, bolts have struck as much as 25 miles from where they originated. The only two safe places to be during a thunderstorm are in a car or in an enclosed house that has electricity and plumbing.īritney Wehrle was walking with a friend on a sunny, warm day when she was suddenly struck by lightning, even though the sky above her was clear and blue.Īnd while that may sound like a rare or even freakish event, it's not that uncommon for lightning to travel far from its originating cloud, experts say. Lightning kills an average of 55 people in the United States each year. Bolts of lightning can travel as far as 25 miles or more.
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