Description:

A steadily growing awareness and understanding of the magnitude of the lightning threat to people has developed in the last decades in the U.S., and especially in the last few years on a global scale. In the U.S., lightning safety education has been part of the reason for one of the largest reductions in weather-related impacts of any meteorological phenomena. Lightning fatality rates, weighted by population, have reduced by an order of magnitude in the last several decades. A broad effort on the part of meteorologists, lightning detection specialists, educators, and the medical and recreation communities have forged effective alliances that can be considered to be responsible in part for this remarkable change. Changing lifestyles in the U.S. may also be a factor, along with higher-quality construction and nearly ubiquitous availability of fully enclosed metal-topped vehicles. In fact, last year, 2021, had the lowest number of known lightning fatalities in history, only 11. Globally, the situation is far from as positive. In developing nations, lightning fatality rates weighted by population have always been very large. Greater internet penetration and news awareness have brought forward many reports that were rarely known to the world outside of villages and small communities. With it has come the mistaken concern that the number of lightning deaths and injuries have somehow rapidly increased, but it is only due to improved reporting. They have been occurring all along. Since there are minimal year-to-year changes in the lightning-vulnerable housing construction and outdoor lightning vulnerable activities such as agriculture in these developing nations, there is no other explanation for how this change may have occurred except for improved reporting. This session intends to bring together these issues. Lightning education efforts have only recently begun in many regions of the world, so reporting on these activities is crucial. In particular, major activities in Africa and Southeast Asia are underway, and are beginning in South America and the Indian Subcontinent.