There are currently several different methods used to keep track of lightning strikes, but none of them can be considered perfect. Despite such instances of underreporting, the methods used in the United States to track lightning strikes are considered to be the best available. In the contest between people and lightning, lightning wins. Although lightning rarely strikes more than one person at a time, over the course of a year the damages, deaths and injuries add up to make lightning a serious threat. By studying the outcome of human-lightning encounters, scientists hope to find more ways to prevent such meetings from occurring in the first place.
Lightning injuries are varied and take many different forms.
Poster papers on hurricanes and tornadoes summarized. Thunderstorms generate elusive and mysterious sprites. Preview of the 11th International Conference on Atmospheric Electricity. More links National Severe Storms Laboratory , Norman, OK National Severe Storms Laboratory Photo Library , where we got a lot of the neat pictures for these lightning stories. More Space Science Headlines - NASA research on the web NASA's Earth Science Enterprise Information on Earth Science missions, etc.