Assessment of lightning-related fatality and injury risk in Canada

Abstract

This article summarizes research completed to assess the risk of lightning-related injuries and fatalities in Canada. Although lightning mortality has declined significantly over the past century, it remains a common meteorological hazard that regularly kills and injures. Based on an analysis of media reports, vital statistics, hospital admission and emergency room visit records, and fire loss data, the authors estimate that on average about 9-10 lightning-related deaths and 92-164 injuries occur each year in Canada. The distribution of casualties reflects current provincial population and cloud-to-ground lightning densities. Consistent with similar studies in other developed nations, most lightning-related fatalities and injuries in Canada occur during the June-August summer season, coincident with peak lightning, and during the Thursday-Saturday period, most likely related to higher rates of participation in outdoor activities. The majority of victims are male, less than 46 years old, and engaged in outdoor recreational activities when injured or killed in a lightning incident. Media reports used in the study were found to underestimate both lightning mortality (36%) and morbidity (20-600%).

Lightning fatalities over India: 1979–2011

“…The death rate (0.25) is significantly lower than the estimated rate of 6 per million people obtained by Holle and Lopez (2003) for less developed nations. This figure is also notably lower than all the figures reviewed by Mills et al (2008). Noteworthy, the rates for fatality per million people per year were 0.42 in the United States for 1959-1994 (Curran et al, 2000) and 0.31 in China for 1997-2009 (Zhang et al, 2011).…”

“…Further, the annual variations can be attributed to the inter-annual variations in the climatic patterns affecting India resulting from regional and global climatic instabilities and teleconnections (Thapliyal and Kulshreshtha, 1991;Bhutiyani et al, 2007Bhutiyani et al, , 2010Dash and Hunt, 2007). Notable increase in lightning fatalities has been documented in China from 1997 to 2007 (Zhang et al, 2011) and in Australia from 1825 to 1918 (Coates et al, 1993), while a decrease in lightning deaths has been documented in the United States during the decades of 1890s and 1990s and during 1950-1991, 1959, 1959-1994and 1995(Lopez and Holle, 1995Lopez and Holle, 1996;Curran et al, 2000;Adekoya and Nolte, 2005;Holle et al, 2005); England and Wales from 1852 to 1990 (Elsom, 1993) the United Kingdom in the decades of 1870s to 1990s (Elsom, 2001); Singapore from 1922 to 1979 (Pakiam et al, 1981); Australia from 1919 through 1991 (Coates et al, 1993); China during 2008-2009(Zhang et al, 2011 and in Canada during 1999-2003 (Mills et al, 2008). Decadal fatalities were observed somewhat more frequently in 2000s compared with earlier decades.…”

“…Surprisingly, there has been little systematic collection of information on lightning deaths in many regions of the world making it difficult to estimate the global annual rates of lightning fatalities (Gomes and Kadir, 2011). The reported fatalities published in different reports, proceedings and refereed journals are from the United States (Pakiam et al, 1981;Lopez et al, 1993;Lopez and Holle, 1995, 1996, 1998Shearman and Ojala, 1999;Curran et al, 2000;Cooper, 2001;Adekoya and Nolte, 2005;Holle et al, 2005), Canada (Hornstein, 1962;Mills et al, 2006Mills et al, , 2008Mills et al, , 2010, Malawi Salerno et al, 2012), Zimbabwe (Castle and Kreft, 1974;Smith, 1991), Australia (Coates et al, 1993), the United Kingdom (Elsom, 2001), Brazil (Cardoso et al, 2014), China (Zhang et al, 2011), South Africa (Blumenthal, 2005), Swaziland (Dlamini, 2009), Colombia (Aldana et al, 2014), Spain (Aguado et al, 2000), Turkey (Tanriover and Kahraman, 2013), Singapore (Pakiam et al, 1981) and Vietnam (Holle, 2008). However, the studies pertaining to lightning fatalities over the Indian region are scanty, except for a few studies by Nizamuddin (1992), Murli Das et al (2007, 2009) and Gadge and Shrigiriwar (2013).…”

Lightning fatalities and injuries in Turkey

“…In the USA 101.2 people per year on average die due to lightning, a number that has decreased over time to about 45 per year by 2006 (Ashley and Gilson, 2009). In Canada, 9-10 lightning-related deaths and 92-164 injuries occur every year (Mills et al, 2008). In the UK there were 2 fatalities per year on average for the period of 1988-2012 (Elsom and Webb, 2014).…”

A decade of cloud‐to‐ground lightning in Canada: 1999–2008. Part 2: Polarity, multiplicity and first‐stroke peak current

“…When lightning strikes the ground, it can ignite forest fires, injure humans and animals (sometimes fatally), cause serious property and infrastructure damage, and generally disrupt daily activities and lives. In Canada, for example, Mills et al (2008) estimated that approximately 10 people are killed and between 92 and 164 people are seriously injured by lightning annually. In a subsequent study, lightning-related damage and disruption costs to the Canadian economy were estimated to be between $600 million and $1 billion each year (Mills et al, 2010).…”