Lightning Effects on the Body

Abstract

LIGHTNIKG is an ever-present part of our natural environment. Brooks (1925) stated that the earth experiences 44,000 thunderstorms per day and that some 1,800 storms are in progress at any given moment. The U.S. Department of Commerce (1966) estimates that these storms produce, collectively, 100 cloud-to-ground lightning discharges each second-or more than 8 million discharges striking the globe each day. If these discharges were evenly distributed over the earth, some half million of them would strike in the world's 8,000 million acres of forested lands every day. These estimates support Viemeister's (1961)· claim that lightning strikes thousands of trees around the world every day. American forestry literature lends further support. From an early survey that included all U.S. National Forests of his day, Plummer (I912) reported that more than 76,000 trees were damaged by lightning in a 4-year period. Wads\vorth (1943) noted that lightning accounted for one-third of the timber mortality in a 15-year study in the ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderos,1 Laws.) forests of