Lightning Deaths by State, 1995 to 2004
2 1
6
1 3 6 6 3 31 5 5 12 7 5 9 11 12
Fatalities 1995-2004
7 22 5 12 17 14 34 17 9 18 19 85
Holle Meteorology & Photography 19 June 2005
3
0
1 2
6 5 0 13
12 2 6 0 7
1
7
7
10
8
10
Source: Storm Data
Alaska – 0 D.C. – 0 Guam – 1 Hawaii - 0 Puerto Rico - 3 Virgin Islands - 1
Rank 1-10 11-20 21-30 31-52
Lightning Deaths Weighted by Population by State 1995 to 2004
Fatality Rate 1995-2004
Source: Storm Data
Holle Meteorology & Photography 19 June 2005
Rank 1-10 11-20 21-30 31-52
Ronald L. Holle June 2005
NUMBER OF LIGHTNING DEATHS BY STATE FROM 1995 TO 2004
State Deaths 1995-2004 18 0 7 8 5 31 2 0 0 85 19 0 6 12 12 5 5 5 17 1 7 2 11 6 9 7 6 3 0 0 Rank of Deaths 6 47 21 20 31 3 40 48 49 1 5 50 26 11 12 32 33 34 7 43 22 41 15 27 18 23 28 36 51 52 State Deaths 1995-2004 6 7 7 17 1 22 10 1 12 3 1 14 3 10 34 13 3 12 2 5 9 6 Rank of Deaths 29 24 25 8 44 4 16 45 13 37 46 9 38 17 2 10 39 14 42 35 19 30
Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware D.C. Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire
New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Puerto Rico Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming
United States
489
One death each occurred in Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2003.
The lightning fatality data were collected by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). They come from monthly and annual summaries compiled by the National Weather Service and published in monthly issues of Storm Data. Data for recent years are available at: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/hazstats.shtml. This table for the period from 1959 to 1994 is included in the following article: Curran, E.B., R.L. Holle, and R.E. López, 2000: Lightning casualties and damages in
the United States from 1959 to 1994. Journal of Climate, 13, 3448-3453. The 1959-1994 information is also available at the National Severe Storms Laboratory web site: http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/papers/techmemos /NWS-SR-193/techmemo-sr193.html
Ronald L. Holle Holle Meteorology & Photography Oro Valley, AZ 85737 18 June 2005
RANK OF POPULATION-WEIGHTED LIGHTNING DEATHS BY STATE FROM 1995 TO 2004
State
Death Rate Per Rank of Million People Death Rate from 1995 to 2004 Per Million 1.21 0.72 0.66 0.58 0.53 0.49 0.46 0.40 0.40 0.38 0.38 0.35 0.32 0.30 0.29 0.28 0.23 0.21 0.20 0.19 0.19 0.18 0.18 0.17 0.17 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
State
Death Rate Per Rank of Million People Death Rate from 1995 to 2006 Per Million 0.17 0.16 0.16 0.14 0.13 0.13 0.12 0.12 0.11 0.10 0.10 0.10 0.08 0.08 0.07 0.06 0.04 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.01 0 0 0 0 0 0 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52
Wyoming Colorado Montana Utah Florida Vermont Idaho Alabama South Dakota New Mexico Louisiana South Carolina Mississippi Arkansas Oklahoma West Virginia Georgia North Carolina Indiana Ohio Kansas Tennessee Nebraska Iowa Virginia
Wisconsin Texas North Dakota Arizona Maryland Missouri Kentucky Minnesota Michigan Pennsylvania Illinois Rhode Island Puerto Rico Maine New Jersey Connecticut New York Washington Massachusetts Oregon California Alaska Delaware D.C. Hawaii Nevada New Hampshire
The lightning fatality data were collected by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). They come from monthly and annual summaries compiled by the National Weather Service and published in monthly issues of Storm Data. Data for recent years are available at: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/hazstats.shtml. This table for the period from 1959 to 1994 is included in the following article: Curran, E.B., R.L. Holle, and R.E. López, 2000: Lightning casualties and damages in
the United States from 1959 to 1994. Journal of Climate, 13, 3448-3453. The 1959-1994 information is also available at the National Severe Storms Laboratory web site: http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/papers/techmemos /NWS-SR-193/techmemo-sr193.html
Ronald L. Holle Holle Meteorology & Photography Oro Valley, AZ 85737 18 June 2005