Reg:

Every year there are a few reports of people struck by and often killed by
lightning.

Indeed Florida is the leading place in the whole world for lightning
activity and lightning deaths.

In Florida we have really vicious thunderstorm activity throughout the
summer months. These storms come up fast, thunderheads rising upwards of
50,000 feet, with black wall clouds decending to ground level and the air
thick with static and rain so hard that you cannot see more than 25 feet.
Impressive stuff!

I have never personally met anyone who was struck by lightning.

One of my own [arbitrary length] dipoles was simply vaporized by a strike
when I was not at home... the ladder line that fed it's center was also
missing and there was a two foot diameter hole about a foot deep in the lawn
where I had left the end of the line laying on the ground. That's where I
place the ladder line when not in the shack. When I returned home after
that storm, I found the rope ends at the two supports simply swinging in the
wind with the insulators on the ends still intact. During the annual ARRL
Field Day event, held at the peak of Florida lightning season, in June of
each year, I/we quickly disconnect feedlines and throw them well away from
the transmitter sites during thunderstorm approach, on several occasions
during those Field Days, and from a distance and under appropriate shelter,
I have personally watched arcs jumping across the air gap between the
conductors of the end of ladder line lying on the ground during the passage
of thunderclouds. But I have never witnessed an actual strike on one of
those antennas.

I don't have statistics at hand, but I can relay that most of the news
reports of lightning deaths that I recall here in Florida were of the deaths
of unfortunate golfers who failed to take shelter during a thunderstorm
approach. I do recall a news report of someone killed by lightning on a
Florida beach within the past couple of years.

It would be my guess that most who are struck by lightning in Florida are
visitors... As far as I can tell, most folks who live in Florida year round
are very well aware of the dangers of lightning and take appropriate
cautions.

--
Pete k1po
Indialantic By-the-Sea, FL


"Reg Edwards" wrote in message
...
There is much correspondence on these walls about protecting equipment
and property from lightning strikes. But there is never anything said
about protecting people. Where are your concerns?

In this country, UK, I can't remember the last time I read in the
newspaper about anybody being killed by lightning. It is extremely
rare.

It doesn't appear to give US citizens much cause for concern. Are you
all very brave? Or have you just got used to it.

Just curious. What is the annual death rate due to lightning, per head
of population, in states like Florida? Do you keep statistics?

How does it compare with the death rate from being chewed to death by
alligators in Florida swamps? Or dying from rattlesnake bites in
Arizona? Does lightning make it to the newspapers?
----
Reg.