Go Back
  • For Business
  • |
  • Warnings
  • Data Suite
  • Newsletters
  • Advertising
  • Superior Accuracy™
Increasing flash flood threat looms in Texas as heat scorches recovery zone. Click for details Chevron right

Columbus, OH

73°F
Location Chevron down
Location News Videos
Use Current Location
Recent

Columbus

Ohio

73°
No results found.
Try searching for a city, zip code or point of interest.
settings
Columbus, OH Weather
Today WinterCast Local {stormName} Tracker Hourly Daily Radar MinuteCast Monthly Air Quality Health & Activities

Around the Globe

Hurricane Tracker

Severe Weather

Radar & Maps

News

News & Features

Astronomy

Business

Climate

Health

Recreation

Sports

Travel

For Business

Warnings

Data Suite

Newsletters

Advertising

Superior Accuracy™

Video

Winter Center

AccuWeather Early Hurricane Center Top Stories Trending Today Astronomy Heat Climate Health Recreation In Memoriam Case Studies Blogs & Webinars

Weather Blogs / WeatherMatrix

More Surprising 2009 Lightning Stats

By Jesse Ferrell, AccuWeather meteorologist and senior weather editor

Published Jun 8, 2009 10:20 AM EDT | Updated Jun 8, 2009 10:49 AM EDT

Copied

Here's an impressive video of the lightning last night in Denver, Colorado (see also the Tornado and damage video at right):

We published an article last week saying:

We started out writing that article assuming we could find trends that suggested that lightning was worse this Spring because it seems like there has been a flurry of media reports in the past month. We thought maybe the speed of the storms (slow or fast) was causing more deadly lightning strikes. But we ended up answering the question of why there have been less lightning strikes than usual:

Here are some more stats to chew on:

Struckbylightning.Org says that 6 people have been killed and 50 injured by lightning in 2009 so far. In 2008, 27 were killed with 303 injured. The 2008 fatalities were 81% male and 70% adult. Sunday was the most likely day to be injured and under a tree was the most common location.

The National Weather Service puts the 2008 numbers at 28 deaths (compared to an average of 44) and 215 injuries, with over $60 million in property damages. For the 10th consecutive year, Florida was the most dangerous state (tying with Colorado’s 4 fatalities). In general, lightning deaths have been decreasing since 1940. The most recent years with a high number of deaths were 2000 and 2002 with 51. Open areas outside were the most likely place to be killed by lightning.

Google News says that news reports of being struck by lightning have been increasing steadily since 1981, likely due to better communication between the public and news agencies, especially local television stations.

Search trends for “struck by lightning” have remained generally steady since 2005, spiking in the Spring and Summer.

As far as planes being struck by lightning, Google News searches showed these occurrences, averaging 6-8 reports per year but only 2007 had as many before today's date. Searching news is challenging because one big report can get spread across multiple media outlets. In the data below, I attempted to isolate individual events. (I'm not sure where we got the data above saying 66 in 2009 vs. 55).

Jun 6, 2009 Ireland Jun 2, 2009 U.S. Jun 1, 2009 Brazil (?) Apr 11, 2009 England Jan 24, 2009 Australia

Nov 4, 2008 Ireland Oct 9, 2008 U.S. Oct 5, 2008 Netherlands Sep 3, 2008 Namibia Aug 5, 2008 Ireland Jul 8, 2008 U.S. Apr 10, 2008 Ireland (Prime Minister)

Nov 23, 2007 Bahrain Jul 20, 2007 U.S. Jul 2, 2007 U.S. Jun 8, 2007 Australia Jun, 2007 Scotland May 27, 2007 U.S. May 5, 2007 U.S. Feb 1, 2007 U.S.

Nov 29, 2006 England May 14, 2006 U.S. (Kennedy) May 8, 2006 Australia

*Data by Vaisala.

Report a Typo

Weather News

Weather News

President Trump visits flood-ravaged Kerrville as search continues

Jul. 12, 2025
Hurricane

Tropical trouble in the Atlantic may brew into next week

Jul. 12, 2025
Weather News

Flash flooding swamps Iowa Quad Cities as storms unleash damaging rain

Jul. 12, 2025
video

Before-and-after pictures show devastation caused by Texas floods

Jul. 9, 2025
Severe Weather

Severe weather to rumble in the central US through the holiday weekend

Jul. 6, 2025
Weather News

Record sargassum seaweed piles up on Caribbean islands, Gulf

Jul. 2, 2025
Weather News

Alabama teen in ICU after lightning strike hits boat, causing burns an...

Jul. 2, 2025
Show more Show less Chevron down

Topics

AccuWeather Early

Hurricane Center

Top Stories

Trending Today

Astronomy

Heat

Climate

Health

Recreation

In Memoriam

Case Studies

Blogs & Webinars

ABOUT THIS BLOG
WeatherMatrix
Jesse Ferrell
AccuWeather Meteorologist and Social Media Manager Jesse Ferrell covers extreme weather and the intersection of meteorology and social media.
  • Astronomy
    with Dave Samuhel
  • Canadian weather
    with Brett Anderson
  • Global climate change
    with Brett Anderson
  • Global weather
    with Jason Nicholls
  • Northeast US weather
    with Elliot Abrams
  • Plume Labs on Air Quality
    with Tyler Knowlton
  • RealImpact of weather
    with Dr. Joel N. Myers
  • WeatherMatrix
    with Jesse Ferrell
  • Western US weather
    with Brian Thompson

Featured Stories

Health

How can families handle new anxieties around summer camp?

1 day ago

Weather News

Viral pygmy hippo Moo Deng celebrates her first birthday

1 day ago

Weather News

Orcas are bringing humans gifts of food – but why?

1 day ago

Business

Samsung is looking into more AI devices potentially including earrings...

1 day ago

Weather News

The US has a plan to breed millions of flies and drop them from planes

2 days ago

AccuWeather Weather Blogs More Surprising 2009 Lightning Stats
Company
Proven Superior Accuracy About AccuWeather Digital Advertising Careers Press Contact Us
Products & Services
For Business For Partners For Advertising AccuWeather APIs AccuWeather Connect RealFeel® and RealFeel Shade™ Personal Weather Stations
Apps & Downloads
iPhone App Android App See all Apps & Downloads
Subscription Services
AccuWeather Premium AccuWeather Professional
More
AccuWeather Ready Business Health Hurricane Leisure and Recreation Severe Weather Space and Astronomy Sports Travel Weather News Winter Center
Company
Proven Superior Accuracy About AccuWeather Digital Advertising Careers Press Contact Us
Products & Services
For Business For Partners For Advertising AccuWeather APIs AccuWeather Connect RealFeel® and RealFeel Shade™ Personal Weather Stations
Apps & Downloads
iPhone App Android App See all Apps & Downloads
Subscription Services
AccuWeather Premium AccuWeather Professional
More
AccuWeather Ready Business Health Hurricane Leisure and Recreation Severe Weather Space and Astronomy Sports Travel Weather News Winter Center
© 2025 AccuWeather, Inc. "AccuWeather" and sun design are registered trademarks of AccuWeather, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy | About Your Privacy Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

...

...

...