Facts about lightning:
- The average lightning bolt is 6-8 miles long and can easily travel 25 to 40 miles horizontally prior to turning downward toward the ground. In October 2001, the visual lightning detection system measured a single bolt that traveled from Waco to Fort Worth and then Dallas, Texas—a total distance of more than 110 miles.
- About 20 million cloud-to-ground lightning strikes occur annually in the USA. That's just under one per second for the USA and about 100 per second world wide.
- The energy contained in a single lightning stroke can power a 100 watt light bulb for 90 days, which is equivalent to 215 kWh (kilo-Watt hours).
- Typically, more than 2,000 thunderstorms are active throughout the world at any given moment, producing on the order of 100 flashes per second.
- An average of 87 lightning fatalities were reported each year between 1959 and 1995.
- About 10 percent of the people struck by lightning are killed; this leaves the other 90 percent with various types of injuries.
- The primary cause of death from lighting is cardiac arrest.
- Unlike high voltage electrical injuries with which massive internal tissue damage may occur, lightning seldom causes substantial burns.
- Most lightning burns are caused by objects such as rainwater, sweat, metal coins, and necklaces being heated up and causing the burn.
- Adam Kincaid once lost power for 16 hours due to lightning and tried suing the power company who then gave him three months free electricity.
