The possibility of lightning striking a person is always latent in the environment, although for this to happen a series of causalities must first arise that lead to the fatal accident. It should be said that the chances that everything fits together for this to happen are extremely low, although doubts arise about what happens to the human body if struck by lightning.
On many occasions when the storm is coming, endless flashes can be seen in the sky that seem to discharge their fury towards the earth. Lightning usually accompanies precipitation storms coming from the clouds, but what is lightning itself?
The Earth and its atmosphere work like a gigantic electrical circuit, the clouds, therefore, have both positive and negative charges. According to NASA, theLightning is a natural phenomenon caused precisely by electrical discharges between the positive and negative regions of a storm.. Thanks to this, shock waves are formed that we see in the form of rays that expand through regions of the celestial vault. Such discharge that it is possible to observe in the sky, honors its visual impact, since they reach temperatures close to 30,000°Cnot to mention the amount of electrical energy they contain.
With this information, it is possible to predict that in the event that lightning strikes a person’s body, the consequences will be just as spectacular, although first you have to worry about what are the probabilities of this happening. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The chance of a person being struck by lightning is 1 in 500,000 annually.
The 80% of people who are struck by lightning discharge survive. But even so, it is the meteorological phenomenon that claims the most victims worldwide. According to the World Health Organization, Every year about 24 thousand people die in the world by lightning strike. The country with the most deaths per year caused by electrical storm discharges is Mexicowith an average of 223 victims annually.
What happens to the human body if it is struck by lightning?
As we have already seen, lightning strikes are electrical discharges that are produced by the interaction of the charges present in the clouds and even on the earth’s surface. Therefore, we are talking about electrical energy that, if it hits the human body, a direct discharge of about 300 thousand volts will pass through it. The surrounding air temperature where the discharge occurs reaches about 30,000°C, more than three times the temperature of the solar surface.
The lightning will enter the body causing third degree burns wherever this happensa. In addition, such an amount of energy will seek to exit through some path, so there is also an exit point where there will also be serious burns. As electrical energy passes through the body, it causes rupture of blood vessels that are sometimes reflected as strange lightning-shaped scars on the skin, called Lichtenberg figures.
In the process, the amount of energy is such that if you have a metallic object at hand, it will also heat up, causing burns. And clothing can experience the same fate, if the heat manages to trap it. But in addition to that, we must remember that our body also works based on electrical impulses, so the strange incidence of invading energy can generate a kind of short circuit both in the nervous system, as in the brain or heart.
The consequences are not always the same, they depend entirely on the specific conditions of the impact, as well as the body on which it affects. But the most common damages are seizures, irreversible neuronal damage and in the most lethal cases, cardiac arrest. The electric discharge is not the only one that comes into play here, but also its incidence on the atmosphere. The lightning strikes generate a sound wave shock that we hear in the form of thunder. It is an expansive wave that can cause lThe eardrums burst or hurt an organ with the impact of the shock.
Safety measures
Although the consequences on the human body of a lightning strike can result in serious injuries, the chances of encountering this situation can be avoided. In the event of a thunderstorm, take the necessary measures.
Must avoid going outside during a thunderstorm especially in open spaces. In case you don’t succeed, Avoid at all costs taking refuge under metal structures. In the case of trees, it is preferable to take refuge under a densely populated space than under an isolated tree, avoid the latter scenario. Taking precautionary measures is essential to avoid accidents.
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