According to the National Public Health Newsletter of January, 1922, the chances of being hit by lightning is 1:28,500.

The Insurance Institute of America states the property damage caused by lightning is over $1 billion a year. The National Lightning Safety Institute has evidence that the damage exceeds $2 billion per year.

The average number of deaths from lightning is more than 100 a year with several more deaths from lightning related fires. Lightning injuries account for 3-5 times than those of lightning deaths.

Comparative weather deaths (1940 –1984 period)

Lightning = 7,751

Tornado = 5,268

Flood = 4,481

Hurricane = 1,923

Lightning sets about 10,000 forest fires every year in the United States.

Between 1940 – 1991, lightning killed 8,316 people in the U.S.

Lightning usually appears before the rain, in a thunderstorm setting, so do not wait for rain before suspending activities when thunder and lightning are visible.

At any given moment, there are about 1,800 thunderstorms happening around the world. Approximately 100 lightning bolts strike the earth every second.

Lightning’s return stroke is hotter than the surface of the sun. Lightning is 50,000 degrees F. The sun is about 11,000 degrees F.

Lightning is equivalent to the electric power of 100 million light bulbs in your face.

About 156 billion, billion electrons flow down into the ground during a typical lightning strike.

Lightning can strike the same place twice and sometimes many times. The Empire State Building in New York City is struck an average of 23 times a year. During one thunderstorm it was struck 8 times in 24 minutes.

Based on data from 1959 –1990, from the National Climatic Data Center, Florida holds the record for the most people killed by lightning. There were over 300 deaths. North Carolina comes in second with 160 deaths and Texas third with around 145 deaths.

The person that holds the title for the most times struck by lightning is the former human lightning conductor of Virginia, ex-park ranger, Roy C. Sullivan. He was struck seven times. He was never killed by lightning but finally took his own life in 1983 reportedly rejected by love.