Lightning Safety Awareness Week

This week, the week of 21-27 June, is being observed as Lightning Safety Awareness Week. This year's theme, “Building Lightning Safe Communities,” is designed to emphasize the importance of protecting people, property, and places against the deadly, yet often underrated lightning threat.

Summer is the peak season for what is considered one of the nation’s deadliest weather phenomena – lightning. However, lightning strikes year round. In the United States, an average of 49 people are killed each year by lightning. To date, there has been nine deaths in 2015.

 



In addition, hundreds of people are permanently injured each year. People struck by lightning suffer from a variety of long-term, debilitating symptoms, including (but not limited to) memory loss, attention deficits, sleep disorders, chronic pain, numbness, dizziness, stiffness in joints, irritability, fatigue, weakness, muscle spasms, and depression.

For more information related to lightning safety, please visit:

National Weather Service: Lightning Safety

Lightning Protection Institute: Lightning Safety Awareness Week

Insurance Information Institute: YouTube: Beyond Thunder Dumb: When Lightning Strikes…