The higher annual ranks in the Northeast are much lower, most likely due to less lightning during these spring months than elsewhere. Damage reports show a similar distribution to the whole year in Figure 9, except for the same reduction in the Northeast shown by casualties. Casualties in the summer are almost identical in distribution to the map for the entire year in Figure 2. This result is as expected, since Tables 25 and 26 show that most lightning casualties occur during summer. Damage reports for the summer are also very similar to the whole-year results shown in Figure 9.
Casualties show a return to high rankings for states in the Southern Plains, as for spring.
West Coast states rank relatively high in casualties during autumn, but rank very low when the entire year is considered. Damage reports are distributed similarly in the autumn and spring. Seasonal totals of numbers of annual casualties and damage reports due to lightning in the United States from 1959 through 1994. The highest concentration is in the Southern Plains, as shown by monthly distributions in Figure 28 . West-coast states continue to rank relatively high in casualties, as in autumn.