Lightning Safety Week 2025: When Thunder Roars, Go Indoors!
Lightning is still dangerous y'all -- and not just death!
Padukah, Kentucky NWS Weather Forecast Office knows what’s what:
Lightning Safety Awareness Week June 22-28, 2025
That link goes to a day-by-day set of resources for lightning safety and education. Here’s one for today:
Sorry to say, whether it’s negatively- or positively-charged flashes… not sure that’s going to help you survive. You can’t influence that at all.
Also, the death of ‘Lightnin’ Strikes’ singer and teen idol Lou Christie last week doesn’t really have any connection. Given he was 82 years old, I don’t think there’s any real connection.
But what timing, eh?
Other timing news: Lou Christie died June 17, and this occurred on June 19
Boy Struck By Lightning In Central Park As Severe Storms Knock Out Power To 500K In Northeast
A boy was struck by lightning as a potent system prompted severe thunderstorm and tornado watches and warnings across the East Coast.
The 15-year-old is recovering after the incident on Thursday afternoon, June 19 at New York City's Central Park, on the upper East Side, near Fifth Avenue and East 96th Street. The NYPD say he was alert and conscious after the incident.
I usually focus on death, as that’s definitive, but there are other outcomes.
Lightning Strike Survivors: Other Long-Term Problems
2 June 2025, Laughing Wolf: Lightning Strike Conference Report
The short version is that I wish I had been able to attend one of these Lightning Strike and Electrical Shock Survivors conferences very much sooner. As in not long after I was hit. The amount of information I got was almost like being hit with a firehose. Even better was talking with other survivors and finding out I’m not alone and not crazy (well, not in terms of the after effects of the strike anyway).
The longer version is that the life I had is gone, and it’s not coming back. In the words of the song, it’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine. In fact, I feel more than fine. There is a part of me that is sad and other emotions at knowing that life is not ever going to come back. My mind and body are never going to work the way they did, and I will never be able to do some of the things I used to do. I’m still a pilot, though I will likely never fly again. If I can adjust to that, I can learn to deal with needing grab bars in the shower.
Fact is, on many levels I had already accepted that and begun moving forward. For parts of my old life, I was and am glad to see them gone. I prefer to see it as a chance to start over, to build a new life, and hopefully a better one, despite the difficulties. While I was never one who worked at Elon-speed/level, I did okay in certain areas. I can still work through certain types of problems, it just takes me longer to do the work. As I noted to Glenn at breakfast, what used to take me 30 minutes to write back then now takes me four hours (or more to be honest).
I can still look at data and spot patterns and trends, it just may take a bit longer. On the physical side, I’m doing a lot better than I was right after the strike and the conference gave me some ideas on how to work to step up my game mentally and physically. It would be nice to be able to do full prostrations, and get up again afterwards. One thing I realized during the conference is that I’ve been viewing, and gaming, my recovery as yet another experiment — one I’ve not bothered the human subjects committee about (think Les Geddes may have rubbed off on me more than I realized).
There is a lot more there.
Laughing Wolf links to the Lightning Strike and Electrical Shock Survivors International:
At Lightning Strike and Electrical Shock Survivors International, we extend our arms to those who have encountered the harrowing experience of lightning strikes and electrical shocks. Our organization serves as a lifeline for survivors, offering guidance, camaraderie, and resources during their journey to recovery. We understand the unique challenges faced by our members, family and caregivers and are here to help.
….
OUR MISSION
To provide a resource of continuous support and education in health and well-being for survivors and their families.
To provide educational programs about the prevention of Lightning and Electrical injuries in the general public but specifically children.
To promote medical research to benefit and better understand survivors and their medical problems.
To become the preeminent informational resource for the treatment and recovery from these injuries.
I usually focus on mortality, as it’s “cleaner”.
But more helpful is looking at morbidity, aka, all the different health outcomes that evolve from an event. It’s more complicated to trace, though.
That said… I’m still all about mortality.
Lightning Strike Deaths Data Update: Geography
I’m on the mailing list for the National Lightning Safety Council, and here are their resources for this week.
Some of the useful graphics from the site:
And indeed, the lightning strike map is related to the fatality map:
It’s not just a matter of where it’s pleasant to go outdoors.
People like to go outside in both Florida and California, but there are fewer lightning strikes in California than in Florida. It’s a difference in weather phenomena in both areas.
That said, some states have relatively high death counts, even with less lightning strikes, as it’s a place with more people.
Lightning Strike Deaths for 2025: Count at 3
Compared to most causes of death in the U.S., lightning strikes are very low in count, though very dramatic. Given that, pretty much every time someone dies this way and we know about it, it makes the news.
Sorry to say, not every homicide and not every car accident death (and certainly not every suicide) makes the news.
Forget about drug overdose deaths.
But lightning strike deaths are now so rare, they are news events.
First death, 11 April 2025: Funeral held for state correctional officer struck by lightning in Onslow County
ONSLOW COUNTY, NC (WITN)- A funeral was held today for the Eastern Carolina correctional officer who was struck and killed by lightning while fishing.
Santonio Catoe served as a K-9 officer, based at Neuse Correctional Institution in Goldsboro. Officials say the 39-year-old man died while fishing from a boat on Northeast Creek.
The funeral was held today in Lancaster, South Carolina.
North Carolina Wildlife says around 9:00 p.m. on April 11th, Catoe was with his child, along with friends Frank Roznos and Jonathan Causey, when he was struck by lightning and thrown into the water.
Second death, 22 April 2025: Man struck by lightning while fishing at the Rez
RANKIN COUNTY, Miss. —A man is dead after he was struck by lightning while attempting to fish at the Ross Barnett Reservoir in Rankin County.
Reservoir police Chief Carlos DiPuma said they received a call just after 10 a.m. Tuesday regarding an abandoned boat near the launch at the Goshen South park.
Police said a witness told them a man was getting ready to head out onto the water as a storm was coming in.
….
"It appears that he was struck by lightning. It was a lightning strike. ... If you see a storm coming up, please get off the water. We preach this every year about boating safety. Please have your life vest on, please. You know, if you see storms coming up, if you're out in the middle of our lake out here, as shallow as it is, it don't take much wind for the waves to start churning. You can get in a dangerous situation, especially in a lightning storm," DiPuma said.
Sorry, but it’s not drowning that causes these people to die (usually).
Wearing a life vest is not going to save you if a lightning strike stops your heart.
The safety recommendation here is for preventing drowning, which is a serious danger, but a different one from lightning strikes.
Third death, 8 June 2025: North Texas father of 3 remembered for faith, generosity after fatal lightning strike
That link goes to a video. The man who was killed by lightning in that one had been golfing with his dad. The lightning strike was hours before predicted storms.
Long-term trend update: Still looking good
In Laughing Wolf’s post above I saw this:
There is no ICD (ICD-10-CM) code for lightning strike, and few in the medical field are prepared (or even interested in) dealing with the multiplicity of problems that crop up over time in survivors.
So I could be indignant and say EXCUUUUSE ME, there’s X33 - Victim of lightning.
However.
I’m mainly looking at death records, not health records. And what those who survive lightning strikes have to deal with are complex (I will come back to that).
That said, between John Jensenius’s record-keeping, the CDC’s data, and separate National Weather Service data:
I like that there are three separate data series I can compare against each other. (Though I know there are issues re: NWS and National Lightning Safety Council, as… well, hey, John Jensenius! Woo! I appreciate you!)
The CDC as a data source is interesting because I can hit data censorship issues if the deaths ever dip below 10 in a year. The CDC data are based on the officially-reported death certificates.
So it’s two different data sets, in essence.
The main point of the long-term trend is the ever-decreasing count, though the population has been increasing.
To be sure, perhaps more people just sit on their butts indoors (as I’m doing right now).
Even so, people do like to go out on the water… where it can be dangerous when there’s lightning.
Actual Safety Recommendations for Lightning
The full page: Protecting Yourself and Your Family from Lightning
Many of the people who have died from lightning strikes are in open areas — a golf course or out on a lake. Unfortunately, not close to a shelter.
The point is to pay attention to the weather.
I think some of the lightning strike death prevention was due to improvement in thunderstorm prediction.
Alas, many of us can become numb to notifications.
Ho hum, a thunderstorm.
Except, there can be repercussions. While deaths are reduced, there can be serious long-term effects on survivors. As noted on this page at Medscape on lightning injuries, the long-term problems are neurological, not burns.
As someone with chronic neurological pain, I’m telling you this is serious trouble.
Spreadsheet
Prior Posts
25 Jan 2024, U.S. Lightning Strike Deaths Total for 2023: 13
17 Jun 2023, Podcast: Lightning Strike Deaths
6 Aug 2023, Lightning Strikes Twice: Follow-up on Lightning Deaths
28 Jun 2024, International Lightning Safety Day: 2024 Lightning Death Toll Already at 3
8 Mar 2024, Updated U.S. Lightning Strike Deaths Total for 2023: 14
24 Jun 2024, 2024 National Lightning Safety Week