Lightning-related fatality, injury, and damage reports for the United States from 1891 to 1894 were compared with those from 1991 to 1994. The reports were analyzed by manual analysis of all entries in Kretzer (1895) and Storm Data from 1991 to 1994.
While many unknown entries were identified throughout the analyses, the characteristics of the remaining cases were clearly defined. Comparisons of numbers and rates were made only with fatality information; injury data in the 1890s in rural areas were greatly underreported. Detailed lists provide a short description of the settings, activities, locations, and incidents for every event that could be categorized.
Several methods were used to subdivide the features of lightning casualties:
•Three settings were defined - Rural, Urban, and Unknown.
•Seven activities, locations, and types of incidents were defined - Agriculture, Indoors, Outdoors, Outdoor Recreation, Small Structures, Sports, and Unknown.
Major changes were found among the characteristics of lightning victims between the two centuries in many categories:
•A major shift from Rural to Urban deaths from the 1890s to 1990s.
• A large reduction in the number of Agricultural and Indoors incidents from the 1890s to 1990s.
•Many more cases involve Outdoor Recreation and Sports in the 1990s. Many of the Outdoor Recreation activities and locations involved fishing, boating, and near the beach or water in the 1990s.
The change concerning Indoors victims consisted mainly of incidents inside dwellings. Houses are now better-grounded than a century ago due to the installation of power, plumbing, and phones over this time period. A lightning strike to a dwelling in the 1890s often resulted in a fire or killed people during routine household activities. In recent years, however, such a strike usually caused a casualty only when a person was in direct contact with power, phone, or plumbing that brings the lighning's current into a building.
There are two interesting similarities that were found:
•About 9% of the deaths occurred when people took shelter under trees in both centuries.
•Males accounted for 73% of the deaths in the 1890s and 81% in the 1990s.
In summary, a US lightning fatality in the 1890s most often was in an Indoors, Outdoors, or Agriculture activity/ location in a Rural setting. In the 1990s, a victim was most often in an Outdoors or Recreation activity/ location in an Urban setting.
This detailed inspection of lightning victims profiles rather separate populations a century apart. Such information can be helpful in designing more relevant educational material for reducing future lightning casualties
Brad Navarro participated in this study while the recipient of two scholarships from the American Meteorological Society. We greatly appreciate the participation of Brian Mast of the University of Oklahoma in helping develop the first versions of the listings.
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