What Happens if You Are Struck by Lightning?

Lightning strikes somewhere on the earth  around 100 times a second which adds up to around 3 billion times a year. Statistically speaking, if you live in the US you have a 1 in 100,000 chance to get hit by lightning in a single year, and a 1 in 3,000 in your entire lifetime. Of course, your actual chances are determined on by where you live and what your habits are. For example, if you like to hold golf clubs above your head on top of the Empire State Building during a lightning storm, chances are you are stupid. But would happen if you got hit by lightning?

 

There are two different types of lightning strikes: direct and indirect. Direct lightning strikes would be, for example, when Zeus hits you on top of the head with a lightning bolt. Indirect lightning strikes are when lightning strikes the ground next to you or hits a tree near you. Most lightning strike survivors were hit by indirect strikes since the chances of getting hit directly are very, very small. 

If your assuming that a lightning strike will hurt you, you are wrong. It will hurt a lot. One lightning bolt contains over 300 KV of electricity and can super heat the air around it to over 27,000 degress Celsius which is 5 times hotter than the surface of the sun. So, what happens to you when the fire of 5 suns hits you on the head? 

Well, the worst case scenario is you die, but assuming you do survive, which 70-90% of people do survive, a number of things can happen to you. Assuming that it doesn't cook your brain, you can experience the following: your clothes being shredded or catching on fire, severe burns, your shoes will most likely fly off, permanent numbness, inability to feel different temperatures, partial paralysis, muscle twitches and Lictenberg scars. For those of you who don't know, Lictenberg scars are probably the sickest scar you could ever get. They happen when blood vessels in your skin burst underneath your skin, and the most interesting thing is that they scar actually looks like lightning as seen below.

   

The trauma of being hit by lightning also does produce some long-term effects for some victims such as memory loss, sleep disorders, tremors, loss of balance, intense headaches, chronic irritability, and depression. Due to the rarity of lightning strikes, doctors do not fully yet know how to treat the victims of these ordeals so suicide rates for lightning strike victims are usually very high. So, lesson of the story, don't go to the Empire State with a golf club in your hand.

Sources: 

http://www.npr.org/blogs/theprotojournalist/2013/07/17/200140433/the-randomness-of-lightning-fatalities-a-mapstory?utm_source=npr&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=20130717

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120926-what-causes-lightening/2

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/dispatches/2005/06/dont_stand_by_me.html

http://mddirect.org/2012/08/06/when-lightning-strikes/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2013/05/08/ten-shocking-things-that-can-happen-if-you-are-struck-by-lightning/