Lightning fatalities in Australia, 1824?1991

Lightning fatalities over India: 1979–2011

“…Far more males (89%) than females (5%) have been killed by lightning flashes in India, as shown in Figure 7. These findings are in contrast to other regions such as South Africa (64%) (Eriksson and Smith, 1986), United Kingdom (65%) (Elsom, 2001) and Swaziland (68%) (Dlamini, 2009), whereas they were found comparable to (79-89%) Singapore (Pakiam et al, 1981), England and Wales (Elsom, 1993), Australia (Coates et al, 1993), the United Statas Curran et al, 2000;Holle et al, 2005) and Colombia (Aldana et al, 2014). Remarkably, male and female fatality ratio indicates that males are killed 18 times more frequently than females.…”

“…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).…”

Brief communication "A multi-disciplinary approach to a side-flash lightning incident to human beings in the Basque Country"

“…The accidents related to the presence of trees may cause injuries and even fatalities. As related by Holle (2012), lightning fatality statistics related to trees have been identified in the last decades, for example by Blumenthal (2012b), Holle et al (2005), Coates et al (1993), Cardoso et al (2011), Pakiam et al (1981) and Agoris et al (2002).…”

Spatial Patterns of Lightning at Different Spatial Scales in the Western United States during August of 1990 – A Case Study Using the Geographic Information Systems Technology

“…Cloud-to-ground lightning is a frequent natural phenomenon often associated with severe weather conditions, which can cause loss of property and human life. Therefore, it is considered a form of natural hazards requiring risk analysis from both spatial and temporal perspectives (Elsom, 1996(Elsom, , 2001Coates et al, 1993;Blong, 1997;Berz et al, 2001). From a regional point of view, it is a concern for the utility industry because severe thunderstorms can cause equipment damage and power shortages for large areas.…”