Lightning Strike Kills Alabama Man, Raising Death Toll to Six Across the United States This Year

A lightning strike killed a south Alabama man last week, as part of an increasing number of lightning strike-related deaths across the United States in recent years.

The fatal event occurred during a severe thunderstorm in an area near O'Bannon Park in Alabama.

Alabama Lightning Strike

(Photo : Photo by Felix Mittermeier on Unsplash)

The south Alabama man has been identified as Greg Shipp who died on Saturday, July 9, following the lightning strike, making him the sixth fatality of lightning strikes in the US in 2022, according to the Brewton Standard.

Shipp was with a group of four adults and a child along Burnt Corn Creek when the severe storm transpired.

The lightning victim was dead on arrival after being unresponsive on a sandbar when emergency personnel rushed to the scene.

Also Read: Storm Alert: Nearly 20,000 Lightning Strikes Recorded in New Zealand Recently

Severe Weather and Lightning

Lightning is described as a "giant spark of electricity" which occurs in the atmosphere either between the air, clouds, or ground, according to the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL), a US government agency under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

In its early development stages, the NSSL explains that air serves as an insulator between opposite charges, mainly positive and negative, within the cloud or between the cloud and the ground.

In this context, it is for this reason that we often see that lightning strikes hurl from the skies downward.

Lightning occurs when the charge buildup exceeds the air's insulating capacity, resulting in the shattering of the air's barrier and causing a rapid discharge of electricity.

The process causes the phenomenon of lightning strikes, which occurs mostly during a severe thunderstorm.

The US storm agency also adds that the natural phenomenon occurs as well during volcanic eruptions, extreme wildfires, surface nuclear detonations, large hurricanes, and heavy snowstorms.

A lightning rarely hits a person yet it still one of the oldest observed natural phenomena on Earth, according to the NSSL.

US Lightning Strike Database

In the US, there are a total of 444 deaths relating to lightning strikes recorded between 2006 and 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

While all regions of the country are susceptible to lightning, the Southeast US is most at risk from the natural hazards.

With this, the CDC provides a list of states that have the most number of lightning deaths and injuries:

Florida
Texas
Colorado
North Carolina
Alabama
Arizona
Georgia
Missouri
New Jersey
Pennsylvania

Florida has been considered to be the "lighting capital" of the North American country due to over 2,000 lightning injuries recorded in the past 50 years.

Lightning Strike Chance

The NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS) says that there are five ways that a lightning strikes people:

Direct strike
Side flash
Ground current
Conduction
Streamers

In general, lightning can hit a person or object directly or indirectly.

There are times when a person gets killed or injured by lightning strike through a fallen tree.

In terms of chances of being hit by lightning, there are no definite scientific models that would suggest which the next target is or when the next occurrence is.

However, the lightning strike data in CDC's website showed that approximately 40 million lightning bolts that hit the ground across the US each year, with an odds of being hit within 365 days to be less than one in a million.