Weather

Lightning Quick Facts

• Lightning often strikes the same place repeatedly if it is a tall, isolated object.
• Most lightning victims are in open areas or near a tree.
• In Florida, lightning kills more people than all other storm-related weather events.
• Lightning can heat its path through the air to five times hotter than the surface of the sun.

Lightning is fascinating to watch but also extremely dangerous. In the United States, there are about 25 million lightning flashes every year. Each of those 25 million flashes is a potential killer. While lightning fatalities have decreased over the past 30 years, lightning continues to be one of the top three storm-related killers in the United States. In addition, lightning injures many more people than it kills and leaves some victims with life-long health problems.

Understanding the dangers of lightning is important so that you can get to a safe place when thunderstorms threaten. If you hear thunder–even a distant rumble or a crackling aloft–you are already in danger of becoming a lightning victim.

Lightning What You Need to Know

All information above and more can be found at http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/index.htm and http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/overview.htm.