Lightning strike kills teenage girl swimming with her friends in Oklahoma
The girl and three others were swimming in a creek when lightning struck. The fatality is Oklahoma’s first since 2012.
Lightning strikes in the distance as a thunderstorm passes over downtown Kansas City, Mo., Sunday, July 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
A teenage girl in Oklahoma died this week from her injuries after being struck by lightning over the weekend, KOAM reported.
The girl and three others were swimming in Blue Hole Park in Mayes County on Saturday when lightning struck at about 10:45 a.m., local time. The girl died on Wednesday, according to KOAM. Her three companions were injured but have since been released from the hospital.
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The lightning strike was the first to result in a fatality in Oklahoma since 2012, when a 61-year-old man was struck and killed in his driveway.
The U.S. has had nine confirmed lightning deaths so far this year, according to the National Lightning Safety Council. The latest fatality occurred just a couple of days after 28-year-old Marquin Russell was struck and killed by lightning while working in a parking lot in Florence, Alabama, amid a severe weather outbreak in the eastern U.S.
Eight out of the nine people killed by lightning so far in 2023 have been male.
Based on the last 10 years, the U.S. averages about 16 lightning fatalities through Aug. 10 each year.
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