Proportional Risk

Proportional risk

I've begun to develop a strong fear of the weather. Lightning and wind also terrify me. When someone is afraid of flying, there are statistics which could help them understand how little a risk they are actually taking. With this statistic method in mind, is there anything I could remind myself of when I begin to become frightened, that could help relax me a bit? Thank you :)

Lightning is something that’s serious, but with most things as long as you approach it intelligently, you’ll be fine! 

The National Safety Council organized a handy chart of “What are the Odds of Dying From” that has some handy statistics. There’s a lot more things that we are significantly more at risk for statistically than lightning. For instance you have a 1 in 672 chance of dying as a pedestrian in your life while a 1 in 174,426 chance of dying from lightning. Yet we don’t carry the same fear when walking as we do for lightning. 

Something to consider here, we’re much more often “exposed” to being pedestrians than we are exposed to lightning, so this makes a bit of sense that the numbers are so skewed, but the point of fear still stands. 

Lightning is serious business, but as I said earlier we need to approach lightning intelligently. 

If you look at the an analysis of lightning deaths in the US about two thirds of incidents occurred to people engaged in outdoor activities. So basically people that are outside enjoying the day when a storm comes along, and they decide to either watch the storm from an unsafe place, or keep going with the activity. Going further into outdoor “leisure” activities, of that two thirds about 35% of those activities were water related (largely fishing, but hey, why not looks at the study yourself!). 

Worth mentioning, the study also pointed out that 79% of victims were male - being okay with risky behaviours doesn’t make you cool and tough, it makes you an idiot. As the study put it:

Possible explanationsfor this finding are that males are unaware of all the dangers associated with lightning, are more likely tobe in vulnerable situations, are unwilling to be inconvenienced by the threat of lightning, are in situationsthat make it difficult to get to a safe place in a timely manner, don’t react quickly to the lightning threat, orany combination of these explanations. In short, because of their behavior, males are at a higher risk ofbeing struck and, consequently, are struck and killed by lightning more often than females.

Here’s a breakdown of activities people are doing when they die from a lightning strike:

Notice these are all things that are outside! The study stated that things that contributed to lightning fatalities were people’s unwillingness to postpone activities, not being aware of approaching storms (you’re either weatherwise, or otherwise!), being in a vulnerable location, an inability or unwillingness to get to a safe place. 

So how do we be safe during a thunderstorm? Do as the NOAA says “when thunder roars, go indoors”! If you know there are going to be storms that day stay alert and take a glance at a radar map every now and then (lord knows you probably have a smart phone), and have an idea of where you’ll go when a storm is near. If you’re unable to get indoors avoid hilltops, isolated tall objects like poles or trees, spread out if you’re in a group, and try to avoid wet items and areas - these won’t make you safe, but will slightly decrease your risk. The only completely safe action is getting inside a building or vehicle.

Have a look over this page on lightning safety and these tips for more info. 

So bottom line, should you have a healthy respect for lightning? Yes. Should you be terrified of lightning? No. Be smart and follow the safety tips, you’ll be alright. 

Thanks for reading, and I hope this helped!