Re: lightning dangers

["Daniel L. MacIsaac" <Dan.MacIsaac@NAU.EDU>]

> But the question remains..has anyone actually seen a verified report of
> someone killed by lightning while inside?  I certainly haven't.  The note
> from Dan suggests there are, but does anyone in the group have actual
> knowledge of such instances?
>
> Rick

Matheson's web citation looks pretty credible to me; I didn't pull the
paper citations discussed.

http://www.lightningsafety.com/

The 35 Years of Lightning Deaths and Injuries page claims 2.4% of accidents
are phone-related, and further claims about 8300 fatalities in 50 years
(NAOO and NWS cites).  That'd imply 200 deaths in 50 yrs or about 4/yr
from phones (ignoring the growing number of phones in that time).  So
certainly more than one/year.  It should therefore be easily possible
to find a report somewhere.

At the web pages belonging to U of AZ Dept of Atmospheric Science (P. Krider
was faculty there), there are sites related to lightning referenced.

http://www.atmo.arizona.edu/related.html

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/trw.htm (claims more lightning deaths than
tornado deaths-- 93 deaths/300 injuries/yr)

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/trwbro.htm  an online NWS pub mentioning the phone
and showers.

I did search the web using altavista as well for
+lightning +phone:  at least one story came up Sydney, Australia in 98 at
www.smh.com.au/news/9807/29/text/national16.html

Maybe someone out there knos how to search newspaper stories online better
than I and can try and find more sources on this.

For the personal knowledge: NO, I don't personally know anyone who was
struck by lightning and killed inside a house.

Dan M

Dan MacIsaac, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Northern AZ Univ
danmac@nau.edu          http://purcell.phy.nau.edu         PHYS-L list owner


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