- Every year more then 500 people are struck by lightning in the U.S. alone.
- Lightning kills an average of 51 people per year in the U.S.
- Approximately 90% of lightning victims in the U.S. survive a lightning strike.
- Approximately 240,000 people world-wide are injured by lightning.
- Florida leads the U.S. in lightning victims.
- People fishing, boating, swimming and camping are most at risk.
- The average lightning bolt carried 500 megajoules of energy. Enough to instantly boil 250 gallons of water.
- An average lightning bolt will heat the air it zips thru to 5 times the surface temperature of the sun.
- 10% of lightning strikes are “cloud to ground”.
- 90% of lightning strikes are “cloud to cloud”. “Cloud to cloud” is the precursor to “cloud to ground” strikes.
- A “cloud to ground” lightning bolt can strike from 12 to 15 miles away.
- There are two types of lightning strikes, a “direct strike”, or a “side flash”.
- Direct Strikes are a direct lightning bolt from “cloud to ground.” Which are more deadly.
- Side Flash or “Splash” is when lightning leaps from one grounded object to another. Which make up 20% to 30% of all lightning strikes. Example: Building to a person, tree to a cow or person to a person which typically occur within 12 feet.
- Roy Cleveland, a park ranger at the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia has been struck by lightning and survived a record of 7 times between 1942 and 1977.
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