It felt like a horse hit you in the back of the head, like a mule kick,” he said. “It was almost like getting the wind knocked out of you by a Mack truck.” Immediately afterward, Fasciglione said he felt energized, his entire body tight, ears ringing and then went numb.
A jolting, excruciating pain. “My whole body was just stopped—I couldn't move any more,” Justin recalls. “The pain was … I can't explain the pain except to say if you've ever put your finger in a light socket as a kid, multiply that feeling by a gazillion throughout your entire body.
If your hair stands on end, lightning is about to strike you. Drop to your knees and bend forward but don't lie flat on the ground. Wet ground is a good conductor of electricity.
When lightning strikes and reaches the nervous system, it can directly damage nerve cells, cause temporary paralysis and cause arteries and vessels in the brain to burst. Electricity from lightning can also cause extreme damage to the cardiovascular system, the system that includes the heart and blood vessels.
The electricity that does enters a person's body can cause devastating neurological damage, including memory loss, chronic pain and seizures in addition to the relatively superficial burns on the outside of someone's skin. About 10% of people struck by lightning are killed.
In addition, ground current can travel in garage floors with conductive materials. Because the ground current affects a much larger area than the other causes of lightning casualties, the ground current causes the most lightning deaths and injuries. Ground current also kills many farm animals.
Risk Factors for Lightning Strikes
A UQ mathematician, Professor Peter Adams, calculated that Australians have a 1 in 12,000 chance of being struck by lightning, which is more than 650 times the chance of winning the Lotto, which is one in eight million.
Although the vast majority of lightning strike victims survive, the effects can be serious and long-lasting. Survivors have experienced debilitating injuries, burns and ongoing disability, including symptoms like seizures and memory loss.
But the odds of being struck by lightning in a given year are less than one in a million, and almost 90% of all lightning strike victims survive.
Aside from internal injuries, lightning strikes can burn the body. Some of these burns resemble Lichtenberg figures, which are wavy lines or skin lesions that look like ferns. Other long-term effects can include seizures, muscle spasms, memory loss, and cataracts from the bright flash.
If you count the number of seconds between the flash of lightning and the sound of thunder, and then divide by 5, you'll get the distance in miles to the lightning: 5 seconds = 1 mile, 15 seconds = 3 miles, 0 seconds = very close.
So, what's going on here? An electric charge builds up as part of a "positive lightning strike." The charge is what makes your hair stand up. You may not think you're in trouble if the storm looks to still be off in the distance. But that electric charge is a sure sign that you should get inside as quickly as possible.
While lightning has been recorded to strike at a distance of 10 miles, the rule of thumb used for safety is a six mile distance. Thus, seeking shelter is recommended if the lightning is six miles away or less.
The most lightning-struck location in the world
Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela is the place on Earth that receives the most lightning strikes. Massive thunderstorms occur on 140-160 nights per year with an average of 28 lightning strikes per minute lasting up to 10 hours at a time.
Most houses are filled with many potential routes for lightning to follow in its journey. This can include gas and water pipes, electric lines, phone lines, cable TV/internet lines, gutters, downspouts, metal window frames - anything conductive in a house is 'fair game' for the lightning to follow.
Immediately get off elevated areas such as hills, mountain ridges, or peaks. Never lie flat on the ground. Crouch down in a ball-like position with your head tucked and hands over your ears so that you are down low with minimal contact with the ground. Never shelter under an isolated tree.
Roy Cleveland Sullivan (February 7, 1912 – September 28, 1983) was an American park ranger in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. Between 1942 and 1977, Sullivan was claimed to have been hit by lightning on seven occasions, surviving all of them.
Is it safe to touch somebody who was struck by lightning? Yes. Lightning victims DO NOT carry an electrical charge and you will NOT be electrocuted by touching someone who has been struck. It is safe to touch a lightning victim and administer first aid immediately.
When lightning strikes, most of electrical discharge occurs near the water's surface. Most fish swim below the surface and are unaffected. Although scientists don't know exactly just how deep the lightning discharge reaches in water, it's very dangerous to be swimming or boating during a thunderstorm.
Thunderstorms are most frequent over the northern half of the country, and generally decrease southward, with lowest frequencies in southeast Tasmania. A secondary maximum is also apparent in southeast Queensland and over central and eastern New South Wales, extending into the northeastern Victorian highlands.
Of the capital cities, Darwin is Australia's stormiest capital city, experiencing around 54 lighting pulses per square kilometre per year. This is followed by Brisbane (26), Sydney (18), Canberra (16), Melbourne (8), Perth (4), Adelaide (3) and Hobart (1).
In a year, Weatherzone estimates Darwin experiences 54 lightning pulses per square kilometre — making it the most lightning-prone capital city in Australia.
According to National Geographic, annually about 2,000 people are killed worldwide by lightning. According to these figures, then, the average human has roughly a one in 60,000 to 80,000 chance of falling victim to lightning in a lifetime of about 65–70 years.
Flash blindness is an either temporary or permanent visual impairment during and following exposure of a varying length of time to a light flash of extremely high intensity, such as a nuclear explosion, flash photograph, lightning strike, or extremely bright light, i.e. a searchlight, laser pointer, landing lights or ...
In rare cases being struck by lightning can lead to a positive change in how the brain functions. One famous case of this is that of Tony Cicoria MD, who was struck by lightning at the age of 42 in Albany, New York's capital.