We hear about people being injured or killed, or property being damaged or destroyed, by flash floods all the time. Or by straight line winds. Or by hail. Or by tornadoes. Why not lightning?
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$\begingroup$ One reason is that a couple of centuries ago Ben Franklin invented the lightning rod, which protects buildings against the effects of lightning strikes. Property damage and deaths were more common before. Especially in churches. $\endgroup$– jamesqfCommented Feb 8, 2017 at 20:37
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$\begingroup$ Because getting killed by lightning is ho-hum. It sells more newspapers to report on some lunatic who has killed for some illogical reason that makes sense to only the lunatic. So the lunatics get over reported and ho-hum deaths due to gun violence, drunk drivers, railroad crossing deaths, and lightning are under-reported. $\endgroup$– MaxWCommented Feb 11, 2017 at 5:13
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4 Answers
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About 51 people die from lightning strikes per year in the United States. Part of the reason is the low probability of being hit by lightning. Tornadoes, hail, and straight line winds sweep large areas, while one lightning bolt covers a rather small area, and may even be harmless if it doesn't make contact.
Think of it this way: if you were struck by lightning, a person 500 feet away may not be harmed by it, but if straight line winds cause your house to collapse, you can say with relative certainty that your neighbor will have some damage.
Another factor is the reliability of protection. Major hail can total a car. Strong straight line winds and tornadoes can collapse or remove your house. A lightning bolt will cause property damage, but you will be safe inside, provided you aren't touching metal.
answered Feb 8, 2017 at 1:41
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$\begingroup$ +1 Please do add a source for the 51 fatality average. Without that, tough to know if the number is a bit high or correct, but its order of magnitude is definitely quite reasonable. And so such values are comparable to tornado fatalities in a normal year (spc.noaa.gov/climo/torn/fatalmap.php), probably significantly greater than general straight-line wind, and much greater than hail. Floods, hurricanes, and wildfires are probably the only numbers greater. There are comparison graphs which would be great, but never can find in a pinch, and their source data can sometimes be unclear. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 8, 2017 at 18:36
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1$\begingroup$ Sure, I did a quick Google search for the result, Turns out that the wikipedia article it comes from is a reference from web.archive.org/web/20051029004621/http://…. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 8, 2017 at 22:02
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1$\begingroup$ A source for more current data is lightningsafety.noaa.gov/fatalities.shtml. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 8, 2017 at 22:04
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Unlike storms and floods, lightning strikes a single point. So the area directly affected by lightning is small in comparison. Another thing to consider is that when you see lightning, that does not mean it touched down to the ground.
However, keep in mind the fundamental way that lightning causes destruction, death, property damage, etc: wildfires. Most wildfires are caused by lightning. In the USA alone, over 10,000 lightning-caused wildfires are reported each year. And, nearly 4 million acres are burned by those fires. See the NIFC for more information. So, while it is unlikely to get struck directly by lightning, the fires that are caused by lightning cause many deaths and vast amounts of property damage, which dwarfs the damage caused by floods and storms.
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A big part of this is that lightning strikes are easy to protect against using lightning rods on buildings and metal framing with conductive tires on cars
In terms of fatalities, the truth is lightning is usually too brief to cause significant heating of the body and the very high voltage generally prevents fibrillation
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The fires lightning starts cause enormous damage and harms including significant loss of life. Lightning is the Proximate Cause - what starts a fire - but is not what directly does the damage and harms. Other factors determine how damaging.
Dry lightning storms during periods of high wildfire danger are the greatest danger and often start fires that reach great size and intensity. 2019 Bushfires in Australia included fires started by dry storms, one of which burned around my home (saved by firefighters) but burned down many other homes and took human lives.
