Top 5 Facts about Getting Hit By Lightning
Looks like you've just been hit by lightning. While the paramedics give you CPR, here are a few facts that probably won't help you at all. Enjoy!
Special thanks to our user Daniel Fong for suggesting the idea at WatchMojo.comsuggest
#5: That Lightning Undressed You
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Lightning’s temperature is roughly 53,000 degrees Fahrenheit. When it strikes you, it usually travels over your skin, heating up everything in its path. This heat can singe and shred your clothes. Water molecules, like sweat on your feet, can vapourize so violently that they blow your shoes right off your feet. At least you weren’t listening to an iPod at the time, or else, instead of just travelling across your skin, the metal in the headphones could direct the current right into your head, breaking your jaw and rupturing your eardrums.
#4: It Probably Didn’t Hit You Directly
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While direct lightning strikes are the most dangerous kind, they are actually less common than the other ways you can get struck. People who take cover under trees are usually hit with what’s called a side splash, where some of the current jumps off the bolt travelling through the tree. The most casualties are caused by ground current though. When an object is struck by lightning, the current can spread out through the ground around the object. The current can then electrocute any nearby person– or animal. In 2005 at a dairy farm in Australia, 68 cows were killed at once when a lightning struck a nearby tree.
#3: You’ve Got Lightning Flowers On You
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These nifty patterns, also known as Lichtenberg figures, appear on the skin of lightning strike victims. The reddish branching pattern is caused by the bursting of capillaries as the current passes over your skin. The patterns can last for a few hours or a few days. They can also occur along the ground where the lightning strikes. In that case you’ll often find fulgurites, also known as petrified lightning, which are minerals, biomass and other materials fused together by the lightning’s intense temperature.
#2: You’ll Probably Live
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Globally, there are 1.4 billion strikes per year. It’s estimated that 240,000 people per year get smited by Thor’s hammer, and Mjölnir obliterates about a tenth of them. (See, Thor was the Norse god of Thunder, as you probably know, and lightning was seen as the embodiment of his hammer slaying giants as he rode his goat-drawn chariot across the sky.) I’m getting off track– look, somewhere between 70% and 90% of lightning strike victims survive, so I’m willing to bet you’ll make it through. But…
#1: You’re Going to Have Some Side-Effects
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It’s estimated that as many as 80% of victims will have some long term effects. Over half have damage to their eyes, including nerve degeneration or retinal detachment. The majority also have damage to their ears, including chronic ear infections and vertigo. Very unfortunate experience Parkinsonism, a complex of symptoms reminiscent of Parkinson’s Disease, or other neurological problems like chronic seizures, sleep disorders– even mood swings and personality changes. Hope you’ve got a good doctor! Next time, maybe you should try using the lightning squat. That… would not make me feel safe. So, did you find these facts (sigh) shocking? Have you ever been struck? For more hotter than-the-sun Top 10s and never-strikes-twice Top 5s, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.
