Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER
29
LIGHTNING INJURIES
Eric L. Johnson, M.D.
Principal Contributor
From the beginning of time to today's fast-paced, high-tech world, the phenomenon known
aslightninghascontinuallyamazed,amused,andattimesabused.Itisanastoundingnatural
event. Scientists who study lightning have a better understanding today of the process by
whichitisproduced,butmoreneedstobelearned. Thecloudconditions thatgenerate light-
ning are well known, but no one can forecast the location or time of the next stroke.
Thispresentationfocusesonwhatisknownaboutthescienceoflightning,injurypreven-
tion, particularly while out-of-doors, and treatment of individuals who have been injured by
lightning. However, once individuals have been “struck,” they enter a sequence over which
they have little control. Prevention is the key! Lightning must be respected for its power,
beauty, and devastating potential.
LIGHTNING FATALITIES
Lightning was the second most common cause of weather-related death over the forty-year
period from 1962 to 2002. Only floods, many of which are also produced by thunderstorms,
killed more people during this time. Lightning kills more people than hurricanes and tor-
nados combined. During the ten-year period 1940 through 1949 approximately 330 people
were killed each year by lightning in the United States. Now, approximately one hundred
people lose their lives that way each year. Of equal note, however, only about 10 percent of
the individuals hit by lightning are killed. The remaining 90 percent may suffer long-lasting
injuries or disabilities, and lightning may even have a lifetime impact.
Many think that the chances of being struck are very remote. The data say otherwise.
LightningstrikesthegroundintheUnitedStatesabout25milliontimesayear.TheNational
Weather Service estimates the chance of being struck as 1 in 240,000 per year, hence over
an eighty-year lifespan the odds become 1 in 3000. Assuming ten family members or close
friends per individual, the chance is 1 in 300 that someone well known will be affected by a
lightning strike. The individual risk will obviously be greater in higher-risk situations such
as a summer afternoon in the Rocky Mountains.
PHYSICS OF LIGHTNING
Lightning is a natural event that occurs mostly during thunderstorms. (On rare occasions
lightning has also been seen in volcanic eruptions, extremely intense forest fires, surface
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