Strike Loop, 11 Struck by Lightning

UPDATE: We also got a report of a home that burned, likely from lightning, via Blog Commenter Dave in Pennsville, PA, and on our Facebook Page Marisa from NW New Jersey reported that her mother's house was struck by lightning - and she's got pictures to prove it:

An article that we put up yesterday says that a total of 10 people were struck and injured by lightning - one killed - over Memorial Day weekend. Here's the breakdown as I was able to find via Google News:

- 1 Person Killed in Mississippi Saturday @ 2 PM- 4 Hikers in New Jersey 5 PM Sunday- 2 Skeet Shooter in Colorado 2 PM Monday- Camper in Connecticut Sunday Morning- 3 People Under a Tree in Florida 8 PM Sunday

Lightning Strikes This Weekend (Enlarge | Alternate Version | Animate - Warning, Large Animation)

Each yellow dot above indicates one or more lightning strikes this weekend. I'll try to find out what the count was, but it was at least in the hundreds of thousands, if not over a million strikes during the 3-day period. While that is above normal due to the large number of thunderstorms, it's not unusual to see 30 to 100,000 strikes in a 2-hour period during the peak of the day in Spring or Summer.

This tragic turn of events resulted from an increase in storm coverage over the nation during a weekend when a large number of people were outside. Lightning is no joke, folks. Pay attention to the "30/30" rule from the National Lightning Safety Institute which says that you should go inside when thunder gets closer than 30 seconds to the lightning strike (or to be safe, when you can see lightning or here thunder, you should get inside), and you should remain inside for 30 minutes after the last strike. Both of these help protect you from "bolts from the blue" (which I blogged about last summer) that can travel up to 30 miles from the edge of a storm.

In other lightning news over the weekend, a strike started a fire at a Corpus Christi, Texas oil refinery Saturday and set a Weslaco, TX house on fire at 5 AM Sunday. At 6 PM Monday, lightning caused a house fire in Walpole, Massachusetts.