Lightning Fatalities in Malawi : A retrospective study from 2010 to 2017 (original) (raw)
Related papers
Risk of injury and death from lightning in Northern Malawi
Natural Hazards, 2012
Rates of lightning mortality in communities on the western shore of Lake Malawi are higher than any other reported rate in the world: 419 strike victims per million people per annum and 84 deaths per million per annum. To document the background to this phenomenon, we conducted comprehensive household interviews with surviving victims and witnesses of every case of lightning strike in seven administrative areas around Nkhata Bay, Malawi. We find that the consequential lightning strikes are significantly more common in the rainy season and during the morning. Among those victims struck by lightning, there is an average ratio of approximately one death to four injuries, which is substantially higher than the commonly accepted ratio of 1:10. Children and adults are at equal risk of being struck. If struck, the probability of death is greater when the victim is outside in the open or outside under cover than indoors under a tin or thatched roof, but is unaffected by different kinds of footwear or whether it is raining. Reported explanations for strikes often center on witchcraft or other forms of social conflict. Our findings extend the study of consequential lightning strikes in the developing world and highlight cultural factors associated with this hazard. We end with recommendations for reducing the risk of lightning for rural populations.
Mitigating the Hazard of Lightning Injury and Death across Africa
Public Health in Developing Countries - Challenges and Opportunities, 2019
Lightning injuries, deaths, and the economic consequences of lightning damage to property and infrastructure continue to be a significant public health challenge and economic development issue in many tropical and subtropical areas of the world, especially sub-Saharan Africa. This chapter will discuss the scope of the hazard, known risk factors including common cultural beliefs that inhibit public education, existing data sources, medical effects and long-term disability, lightning formation and detection, injury mechanisms, existing lightning safety programs and their challenges, and the work being done to decrease injuries, death, and property damage from lightning in Africa by the African Centres for Lightning and Electromagnetics Network (ACLENet).
Case studies of lightning related injuries and property damage in Zambia
2012 International Conference on Lightning Protection (ICLP), 2012
This is the first investigation and analysis of lightning related incidents in Zambia. Two case studies on both human injuries and equipment damage at five sites are reported. Lightning injuries were mostly attributed to the lack of proper structural protection systems, although lack of awareness among the public may also contribute to the situation. Many injury mechanisms, including unsuccessful upward streamers, may cause injuries. Design of lightning protection schemes should take social structures and affordability by the affected public into account. Losses in the power sector are excessively high in the region and seriously affect the operation of both business and domestic life. Replacement cost incurred by the power companies can be prohibitive. Lightning density and pattern in the localized areas, grounding systems of the installations, and specification and installation techniques of lightning arresters should be revisited in giving proper solutions to transformer and power line failures.
Lightning environment in Burundi
2014 International Conference on Lightning Protection (ICLP), 2014
This paper presents preliminary studies on the lightning accident details in Burundi, a landlocked country in East Africa. The reported lightning incident record in 2012 and 2013 depicts that there are 52 human deaths, 94 human survivals with injuries and 40 deaths of livestock. Makamba province recorded the highest human casualties with 14 deaths and 69 injuries whereas Nyanza-Lac commune of the same province topped the list with 8 deaths and 52 injuries. The statistics do not justify the 1:10 ratio of death: injury as it is reported in USA. The statistics may be a gross underestimation as many lightning accidents are not reported due to lack of communication, especially in the rural areas. Gomes-Kadir equation estimates the death rate as 52 per year, a figure twice as high as that was observed in this study. The analysis of information for incidents over few more years reveals that seeking shelter under ungrounded metal-roofed buildings is extremely dangerous as multiple deaths may occur in the event of a lightning strike to the roof.
A Summary of Recent National-Scale Lightning Fatality Studies
Weather, Climate, and Society, 2016
There is a major difference in population-weighted lightning fatality rates between the lower fatality rates in developed countries and the higher fatality rates in developing countries. The large decrease in annual rates of population-weighted lightning fatalities in the United States is described over the last century. A similar large reduction in lightning fatality rates has occurred during recent years in Australia, Canada, Japan, and western Europe, where there has also been a change from a mainly rural agricultural society to a primarily urban society. An important accompanying aspect of the lower casualty rates has been the widespread availability of lightning-safe large buildings and fully enclosed metal-topped vehicles, as well as much greater awareness of the lightning threat, better medical treatment, and availability of real-time lightning information. However, lightning exposure for many people in lesser-developed countries is similar to that of a century ago in developed countries. The number of people living in these areas may be increasing in number, so the number of people killed by lightning may be increasing globally due to these socioeconomic factors. It can be difficult to locate national lightning fatality data because of their mainly obscure publication sources. The present paper synthesizes lightning fatality data from 23 published national-scale studies during periods ending in 1979 and later, and maps these fatality rates per million by continent.
2016
A recent publication [1] summarized the lightning fatality rates per million people for 23 published national-scale studies ending in 1979 or later. Additional published studies have since been identified for Burundi, Mongolia, and Sri Lanka. A major difference was found between the low fatality rates in more developed countries and higher fatality rates in lesser-developed countries. There have been several recent estimates of the total number of global annual fatalities that range ranging from 6,000 to 24,000 per year. The present study takes the results from [1] and converts them into the number of deaths. The global total from these 26 studies is determined to be 4,176 fatalities per year, but data from many countries are missing and additional multi-year national-scale studies are needed. Keywords—Lightning fatalities; national lightning fatality rates; global lightning fatalities
In the UK in the past 30 years (1987-2016), 58 people were known to have been killed by lightning, that is, on average, two people per year. The average annual risk of being struck and killed was one person in 33 million. If only the past ten years are considered, a period with fewer average lightning deaths, the risk was one person in 71 million. The likelihood of being killed by lightning is much less than it was a century ago when it was around one person in every two million per year. The current UK lightning risk is compared with USA risk. The risk of being killed by lightning in the UK differs by the activity being undertaken at the time. This paper groups activities into three broad types. During the past 30 years, work-related activities accounted for 15 per cent of all deaths, daily routine for 13 per cent, and outdoor leisure, recreation and sports pursuits for 72 per cent. Leisure walking on hills, mountains and cliff-tops together with participating in outdoor sports activities, notably cricket, fishing, football, golf, rugby and watersports, gave rise to around half of all leisure, recreation and sports activity deaths. The highest number of deaths occurred amongst the 20-29 year-age-range. Men accounted for 83 per cent of all lightning deaths reflecting the higher proportion of male participation in outdoor work-related activities and specific outdoor leisure activities (hill and mountain walking) and sports activities (cricket, fishing, football and golf). Sundays gave rise to 26 per cent of all deaths reflecting this is a day when large numbers of people participate in higher lightning risk leisure activities. The four months from May to August accounted for 80 per cent of all deaths. A specific study is conducted of the synoptic and weather situations during days when thunderstorms developed and resulted in deaths amongst people undertaking leisure walking activities. Overall, this paper highlights the factors that should help to lessen the risk of being killed by lightning in the future.
Recent Lightning-related fatalities and injuries in Bangladesh
A database of lightning-related deaths and injuries in Bangladesh was developed from 1990 to mid-2016 from a variety of sources that contains a total of 5,468 casualties, comprised of 3,086 fatalities and 2,382 injuries. Spatial, temporal, and demographic aspects of these lightning casualties are evaluated in order to aid relevant entities in effective management of lightning-related meteorological hazards. The annual averages for Bangladesh are 114 fatalities and 89 injuries over the entire period. Weighting by population reveals a fatality rate of 0.92 per million people per year and an injury rate of 0.71. In contrast, the latest six years have a fatality rate of 1.6 and injury rate of 1.4. The rural portion of lightning fatalities is 93%. Most fatalities occurred between early morning (0600 LST) and early evening (2000). Through the year, more fatalities occur during the pre-monsoon season of March through May than during the monsoon season (June – September). The inter-annual time series of fatalities indicates an increase since the late 2000s which is a result of greatly improved communications leading to better media reporting of lightning casualties. Bangladesh has also become much more populous in recent years. As a result, the most recent six years have 251 fatalities per year that may be considered as the current estimate. The majority of lightning-related deaths occurred to males. Farming is the major activity at the time of lightning fatalities, followed by being inside a dwelling, and returning home or walking around homesteads/courtyards.
Lightning Fatalities and Injuries in Bangladesh from 1990 through 2017
2018
National summaries of lightning-related deaths and injuries are very difficult to obtain in many developing countries. For Bangladesh, Dewan et al. [2017] identified 3,086 fatalities and 2,382 injuries from 1990 to mid-2016, for annual averages of 114 fatalities and 89 injuries over the entire period. This paper updates Dewan et al. (2017) with another 18 months of recent data through 2017. The latest eight years have a fatality rate of 2.08 per million people per year and injury rate of 1.7. The rural attribution is 93%, the majority of deaths occur to males, and farming is the major activity. An increase since the late 2000s in part results from greatly improved communications leading to better media reporting of casualties because of a major increase in cellular telephone usage. The totals from 2010 to 2017 of 260 fatalities and 211 injuries per year may be considered as the current estimate. Keywords—Bangladesh, lightning fatalities, data collection.