NOAA Technical Memorandum NWS SR-193, Section 12
12. Damage Report Costs
The most frequent cost of lightning-caused damages in the US is between $5,000 and $50,000 according to Storm Data. This range accounts for half of all reports between 1959 and 1994. The categories of $500-5,000 and $50,000-500,000 are also frequent. These three categories account for 92.7% of the reports. Detailed costs are shown in Figures 40 and 41, and Tables 35 to 37.
All regions of the US have the interval of $5,000-$50,000 as the most frequent amount (Table 36). The next most frequent interval is $500-$5,000. There is a tendency for somewhat higher costs from the southern plains eastward, compared to the northern plains westward (Table 36).
Decadal changes show that smaller losses have been increasing while larger amounts have been decreasing (Figure 41). Since inflation has not been taken into account, the shift is greater than shown by Storm Data. No obvious reason is apparent for this change.
The Storm Data amounts are greater than insured lightning losses in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming (Holle et al., 1996). Those losses were paid for insurance claims by homeowners and some small businesses. Over a third of the insurance losses were between $251 and $1000, and a few were over $5000. This comparison shows that Storm Data tends to include more widely known events and fewer small losses. It is not possible for National Weather Service staff preparing Storm Data to be aware of frequent small losses when they do not result in a call to an emergency agency and are not in the newspapers.
The following lists provide information on the types of expensive events that tend to reach the National Weather Service through the newspaper clipping process, and an idea of the variety of lightning damages that can occur.
Over $5,000,000 (1959 to 1994)
The 17 lightning losses over $5 million in Storm Data (Tables
35 and 37) were mainly due to forest fires; some
homes were also destroyed and crops were lost. The fires were in Oregon (eight
in 1987), Idaho (two in 1989), Montana (two in 1984), and Arizona (one in 1990).
The other lightning losses over $5 million were from damage to a factory, an
oil tanker sunk at a dock, a historic hotel, a propane truck exploded at a lumber
yard, and extensive damage to a phone system.
Over $500,000 (1985 to 1994)
There were 92 entries over a half million dollars during these years; seven
had no information. The rest can be grouped as follows:
-13 forest fires in Oregon and Idaho.
-9 cases with one or more homes.
-9 manufacturing plants.
-8 agricultural facilities.
-8 retail stores.
-7 church properties.
-7 school properties.
-7 warehouses or wholesale businesses.
-4 apartment buildings.
-4 petroleum installations.
-2 aircraft or airport facilities.
-2 historic mansions.
-2 office buildings.
-One each telephone company, power substation, and building under construction.
|
Figure 40: Number of lightning damage reports by year from 1959 to 1994 in the US. |
 |
Figure 41: Decadal changes in US lightning damage reports for the five most frequent cost categories. |
The types of property damages in central Florida from 1983 to 1990, but not the damage amounts, were summarized by Holle et al. (1992). The most frequent category was residences, including mobile homes and apartments; no other large category was found. Michigan losses over $50,000 from 1959 to 1987 were mapped by Ferrett and Ojala (1992) by county.
The digital database developed from Storm Data contains 106 entries for 1989 that are incorrectly coded. These amounts indicate losses of more than $500 million, and were recoded for the present study as missing.