How many people per year die from lightning strikes?
483272
It is difficult to say with any degree of certainty due to the way deaths are reported in differ ant countries. In the U S only 14 were killed in 2005. World wide, it is estimated to be about 300. It is interesting to note that about ten times as many people are killed world wide by falling Coconuts as by lightning.
476930
Everything has to be perfect for you to be struck, even if you are made of titanium.\n\n80% of lightning goes from cloud to cloud. The 20% that is between the ground and sky, 75% of it goes up, meaning the ground strikes the cloud. \n\nAnd to make it even tougher for a metal person to be struck, they have to be one of the highest points in an open field, rooftop, whatever. Which is why trees are more often struck than anything else, even if it is next to a house with a metal pole, or a car on the road....\n\nisn't that interesting?
621977
Only if you're paranoid. There's more chance of being struck by lightning than getting a virus on a mac.
753465
Not as many as the amount of patients die everyday in hospitals due to neglect. That is 200 every day...unless it's gone up. Sorry I don't have your answer.
215901
Of course it can. Boats are often struck. That is why being on a boat on the open water is so dangerous in a lightning storm. Lightning also strikes the sea surface many times per year. \n\nThe reference contains a picture of lightning striking the ocean off the coast of Florida, and a map of lightning strikes showing many over the oceans.
89618
Because the ocean is really big.  And a charge that carries enough juice to zap all the creatures would need to be a lot bigger than a typical lightning bolt charge..  When it hits a person with a direct hit has a very low likelyhood of actually killing that person.  Think about it like electricity.  One lightnning strike is like sticking your wet finger into an outlet....ok now if everyone in a city where to stick their finger into a wet socket that's like 500,000 lightnining bolts.  You'd have to drop a nuclear power plant into the water to kill all the fish.
757146
Lightning is one of the oldest observed natural phenomena on earth. At the same time, it also is one of the least understood. While lightning is simply a gigantic spark of static electricity (the same kind of electricity that sometimes shocks you when you touch a doorknob), scientists do not have a complete grasp on how it works, or how it interacts with solar flares impacting the upper atmosphere or the earth's electromagnetic field.\nLightning has been seen in volcanic eruptions, extremely intense forest fires, surface nuclear detonations, heavy snowstorms, and in large hurricanes. However, it is most often seen in thunderstorms.At any given moment, there can be as many as 2,000 thunderstorms occurring across the globe. This translates to more than 14.5 MILLION storms each year. NASA satellite research indicated these storms produce lightning flashes about 40 times a second worldwide.This is a change from the commonly accepted value of 100 flashes per second which was an estimate from 1925. Whether it is 40, 100, or somewhere in between, we live on an electrified planet.\n\nThe Sound of Thunder\nRegardless of whether lightning is positive or negative, thunder is produced the same way. Thunder is the acoustic shock wave resulting from the extreme heat generated by a lightning flash. Lightning can be as hot as 54,000°F (30,000°C), a temperature that is five times the surface of the sun! When lightning occurs, it heats the air surrounding its channel to that same incredible temperature in a fraction of a second.\n\nLike all gases, when air molecules are heated, they expand. The faster they are heated, the faster their rate of expansion. But when air is heated to 54,000°F in a fraction of a second, a phenomenon known as "explosive expansion" occurs. This is where air expands so rapidly that it compresses the air in front of it, forming a shock wave similar to a sonic boom. Exploding fireworks produce a similar result.\n\nWhat is the difference between a thundershower and a thunderstorm?  \nTechnically, there is none. In general, the term "thundershower" tends to denote a fairly weak storm with light to moderate rainfall and low levels of lightning activity. However, there are no defined parameters that distinguish between a thundershower and a thunderstorm. In fact, in order to avoid confusion, we in the National Weather Service do not use the term "thundershower". If a shower is strong enough to produce lightning, even just one single bolt, it's called a thunderstorm.\n\nTo Learn More about Lightning and Thunder go to \nhttp://www.srh.weather.gov/jetstream/lightning/lightning_intro.htm\n\nLIGHTNING SAFETY A MUST READ\nLightning is the MOST UNDERRATED weather hazard. On average, only floods kill more people. Lightning makes every single thunderstorm a potential killer, whether the storm produces one single bolt or ten thousand bolts.\n\nIn the United States, lightning routinely kills more people each year than tornadoes and hurricanes COMBINED. Tornadoes, hail, and wind gusts get the most attention, but only lightning can strike outside the storm itself. Lightning is the first thunderstorm hazard to arrive and the last to leave.\n\nLightning is one of the most capricious and unpredictable characteristics of a thunderstorm. Because of this, no one can guarantee an individual or group absolute protection from lightning. However, knowing and following proven lightning safety guidelines can greatly reduce the risk of injury or death. Remember, YOU are ultimately responsible for your personal safety, and should take appropriate action when threatened by lightning.\n\nWhile no place is 100% safe from lightning, some places are much safer than others.\nWhere to Go Where NOT to Go \nThe safest location during a thunderstorm is inside a large enclosed structure with plumbing and electrical wiring. These include shopping centers, schools, office buildings, and private residences.\n\nIf lightning st
291116
US dead: 58,226\nUS wounded: 153,303
207048
Slim to none, but happens.\n\nAlthough, people who have been struck once are more likely to be hit again.  \n\nI had a teacher who had been struck a total of 4 times.  He had tunnel vision, his backbones were fused together, among other things.\n\nI also know someone who can feel if she is about to be struck.  There have been multiple times she has felt "wired" during a storm.  She jumped and a second later lightning struck were she had been standing.
339971
"A bolt of lightning can reach temperatures approaching 28,000 kelvins (50,000 degrees Fahrenheit) in a split second. This is about five times hotter than the surface of the sun."  The core of the sun reaches 13.6 MK (about 500 times the temperature reached by lightning).
104162
Alzheimers is a gradual (usually over several years) deterioration of brain function. It appears to have some genetic component. From what we understand, which isn't as much as we would like, lightning or electric current in the vicinity of us is not a factor. The distribution of Alzheimers is not related to the distribution of electrical storms e.g. mountain ranges have more storms but no more Alzheimers. \n\nA direct hit by lightning could affect brain function in a survivor, but would not be classified as Alzheimers. So the answer is "No".
660851
From the data you gave there are 2 answers\n1. There were 655 natural disasters (yes this sounds to easy, but think about it the question is how many disasters were there in a 20 year period, by the way 209 of them were floods)\nOr\n2. 446 non-flood natural disasters\nOtherwise the question is unsolvable with the information you gave.
548407
Yeah, it does...The truth is, lightning tries to find the shortest distance to ground (The Earth). Although the odds are favorable that lightning won't strike the same place twice, there is nothing in nature to prevent it. It can strike 3 or 4 times in the same spot.
1119885
Ok... I read the answers previously posted and they all sound reasonable close to the truth, so I'll leave them be.. they did fail to mention how a person is actually killed by a lightning strike... So I'll answer this for you...\nYour body uses the flow of charged ions to control many processes (i.e. Muscle movement, nerve signalling).  The flow of charge is more commonly known as electricity.  The average membrane potential in a human is -70 kilojoules(kJ), and the channels in your cells membrane can be triggered by an impulse of only about 20 kJ.  So when you get a current through your body with a potenial of thousands of volts... obviously there is going to be a disruption of the charge gradient.  Depending on the path of the current through the body, the effects will vary... the most dangerous path is for the current to travel through your heart.  Since your Heart is a muscle and is is controlled by an "electrical" signal, this extreme voltage can cause an over fibrulation of the cardiac muscles and essentially render then useless... kind of like if you were to take a slinky and stretch it out as fa as you can... its not goign to contract again, and is not something that can be easily fixed.  Hope this helps!
717599
Reference 1 (a trivia site about lightning) claims\nthat it can go as high as 300 million volts.
138456
There are 10 significant meteorshowers every year. The next one this year is called the Lyrids and peaks around april 22. It generates a typcial rate of 15 meteors per hour. Wether they are very visible in New York City due to ligth pollution I cant really say.
518704
Approximately 2,986.\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9/11#Fatalities