Three Ways Lightning Has Left Its Mark

"...quarter of a million people hit by lightning a year."

Can this possibly be accurate?

This number is from the source article. The poking around that I did turned up scattered statistics, but added together, come nowhere near to 250,000 human to lightning interactions per year average. Can anyone substantiate this number?

Here it is for USA...odds about 1 in 1 million of being struck by lightning in a year.

http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/odds.shtml

"How Dangerous is Lightning?

Lightning is a major cause of storm related deaths in the U.S. A lightning strike can result in a cardiac arrest (heart stopping) at the time of the injury, although some victims may appear to have a delayed death a few days later if they are resuscitated but have suffered irreversible brain damage.

According to the NWS Storm Data, over the last 30 years (1984-2013) the U.S. has averaged 49 reported lightning fatalities per year. Only about 10% of people who are struck by lightning are killed, leaving 90% with various degrees of disability.

If 1/4 million are struck worldwide (pop 7 Billion), that is an odds of 1/2800, 400 times the US average. I agree with you.

I think your odds go up significantly depending on your occupation or hobbies. Golf anyone?

I thought the same thing. My only conclusion is that if the number is correct, maybe people get struck at a much higher rate in certain countries (where there's a lot of violent storms).

Here is some data on some different countries, fatalities per million per year:

I don't know how accurate this is, but it does appear that the fatality rate could be a lot higher in other countries than in the US (1 fatality per million per year). Note that the Chinese (19% of earth population) rates are pretty high.

There might be a good market for lightning rods in China...

http://www.outsideonline.com/1912401/lightning-deaths-and-injuries-numbers

One article I referred to stated that the more rural the area, in general, the more deaths. This makes sense to me as the opportunity/necessity to be outside is greater. I know rural¹ farmers in China spend a great deal of time outside compared to their USA counterparts. I would imagine this to include the other developing nations as well.

Fun fact: http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-lightning-strikes-survived

1. Rural as in more than a couple hours away from the outskirts of a city by private car.

Here's a worldwide site I found: http://www.outsideonline.com/1912401/lightning-deaths-and-injuries-numbers

"24,000: Deaths a year from lightning.

240,000: Injuries a year from lightning."

Another arguable worldwide source (they use quite a bit of estimating): http://www.vaisala.com/Vaisala%20Documents/Scientific%20papers/Annual_rates_of_lightning_fatalities_by_country.pdf

"Holle and Lopez (2003) made an assessment of the worldwide impact of lightning, and concluded that 24,000 deaths and 240,000 injuries occur per year."

Bonus link: http://www.yalescientific.org/2014/04/death-by-lightning-to-some-countries-more-than-just-a-shock/

Just the first three semi-interesting looking links I found. Still nowhere near 250,000 deaths a year worldwide. Interesting to note though, the numbers match. That was not on purpose by me.

My wife's step brother and his wife were both struck by lightning several years ago and she died. He survived.

When I was a child, my brothers, a few cousins and myself were in a lake when a storm rolled in and lightning struck the lake a couple hundred yards away. We could have lost an entire generation of our family. At that distance the shock was no more intense than an electric fence. I am more careful now.

IMHO The most dramatic and appealing way that lightning literally makes its mark on the Earth is the fulgerite.

Not quite the same as the Sweet Home Alabama movie ones.