What Happens When You're Struck By Lightning? | The Human Body

Getting stuck by lightning is rough. It can burn hotter than the sun, scar your body, and even blow off your clothes. Even worse, it kills about 47 Americans per year. Although 90% of those struck survive, it's still worth knowing how to avoid getting a heavy dose of sky electricity.

Following is the transcript of the video:

Contrary to popular belief, lightning strikes aren’t always a death sentence. In fact, about 90 percent of people in the US who are struck actually survive.

Still, victims rarely walk away unscathed, and the damage can be permanent.

Lightning triggers 75,000 forest fires in the US each year and can split entire trees down the middle in a split second.

So it’s frightening to imagine what it does inside a human body.

The good news is that you won’t get cooked Wile E Coyote-style, but it can still do damage.

For starters, lightning carries between 1 to 10 billion joules of energy — enough to power a 100-watt bulb for at least 3 months. When that amount of electricity enters your body,  it short-circuits the small electrical signals that run your heart, lungs, and nervous system.

This can lead to cardiac arrest, seizures, brain injury, spinal cord damage, and even amnesia.

But electricity isn’t your only problem. Lightning is blisteringly hot. In under a second, it can heat the surrounding air to temperatures 5X hotter than the sun’s surface.

This causes a rapid expansion of air, which leads to a shock wave that we hear as thunder.

It has been calculated that someone standing within 30 feet of a lightning strike point can experience a blast wave equivalent to a 5kg TNT bomb (Blumenthal).

The intense heat, light, and electricity can also damage your eyes. In fact, it can bore holes in your retina and can cause cataracts within days or weeks.

Other side-effects of lightning can include impotence in men and overall decreased libido. That’s just what happens on the inside!

As the lightning moves toward the surface, it can force red blood cells out of your capillaries, into your epidermis….like a bruise. These intricate designs are called Lichtenberg figures.

The intense temperatures can also heat up any metal you might be wearing, causing third-degree burns and can also rapidly vaporize the rainwater or sweat on your skin. The resulting steam explosion may blow off your clothes and shoes leaving you nearly naked!

On average 47 people in the US are killed by lightning each year. So, you might be wondering, “How do I make sure I’m not that guy?”

For starters, check weather forecasts ahead of time, and stay indoors during a storm. But if you’re stuck outside, avoid isolated trees, poles, and open fields, and run as fast as you can towards safety.

You’re best off in a developed building or a hard-topped metal vehicle. So stay calm and just remember: “When thunder roars go indoors!”

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What Happens When You're Struck By Lightning? | The Human Body

[AlvinFS]

Expectation: You'll become Flash
Reality: You'll be in the news

[cloud]

People: I got struck by lightning and it traumatised me

People from Norway: I got struck by lightning because I have been blessed by *THOR*

[artist]

Luckily I listened to uncle Iroh when he explained how to bend the lightning😊😊

[biterness]

I’ll just redirect the lightning like Iroh does. Easy.

[Brandon-vyuw]

Splits trees in half.
90% of people survive.

Conspiracy theorists activated*

[oliobgmoti-bulgaria]

"Run as fast as you can" - I would be dead before I see it

[slushee]

Flash: Supa Speeeed
Yujiro Hanma: Feels good
Zenitsu: New hair colour
Thor: Hammer time
Hotel: Trivago

[veronicavictorious]

*"When thunder roars, GO INDOORS"*

[brianthesnail]

This video explains what happened to me when I was hit by lightening. I was stood just inside an open fronted farm building in the UK holding a large 5 foot long crowbar in a heavy thunderstorm. The lightening hit me through the open side of the building but earthed through the crowbar that was luckily touching the floor. I remember the explosion and being thrown across the building and waking up slumped against a wall with my head bleeding and the crowbar about 20 feet away. This video explains the explosion and why I went unconscious for some time. I was unharmed on the day but have been basically unwell for a large part of my life with autoimmune problems. It makes me wonder if that had any causative effect.

[buckylovesplums_]

I'm absolutely terrified of thunder and lightning and it gives me really bad anxiety mainly being caught in one and getting strucked by lightning. It's so bad for me that I will constantly check the weather many times a day for any bad weather and I feel anxious the whole day preparing for it come. Even when it's just heavy rain or I see it in the distance I will have a bad panic attack terrified of getting hit at any moment even when I'm trying to get indoors as fast as I can. I will never understand how people don't take it seriously, yes it's rare but it's still dangerous and you should still be careful. My own family thinks I'm crazy whenever i have a panic attack over thunderstorms and they think it's not dangerous when it literally is.

[InvestingHustler]

Quick and most logical answer is you gain super powers duh 😂👌

[harrisonstrunack]

Only watching this cause I just saw a guy get struck by lightning on a beach in Clearwater FL today and he went into cardiac arrest, shit was crazy

[GJesse]

My dad was struck by lightning while riding a bike in the 80s. No permanent damage of any kind, but he reports it physically flung him over the handlebars about 7-8 feet.

[McHeisenburger]

Hey, on the bright side you get those cool-ass lightning tatoo things.

[krissykat]

I got shocked by lightning about 3 weeks ago, it hit a tree about 10 ft away and traveled thru the wet ground and up thru my barefeet. Felt like my heart was going to explode. My 4yo was on my lap and said she felt the buzz too (I was sitting on the bottom step with my feet on the ground) . It felt like I was leaning on a hot pole. There was a lightning ball right above us. I could feel my necklace and earrings lift. Only side effect I had was having a seizure the next night while watching the avalanche scene on call of the wild (and synged half my eyebrow off). Now each time it storms I feel all buzzy (like electrical buzzing) . Scary as hell. I was trying to get my 4yo inside as I was waiting to spontaneously combust
👁️👄👁️

[haimuj]

Glad I watched this. I usually don’t go in the house when there’s thunderstorms, but I will do that immediately now when I hear it.

[aljuria]

Lightning:*hits me*
Me:nothing happened..?
My phone : *charging noise intensifies*

[wparo]

Good information to keep in mind while on my thunderstorm filming trip.

[TheWaynelds]

It’s a different story if the storm changes polarity and you’re hit by a bolt carrying a positive charge.Theyre a lot stronger, louder, and can travel a good distance away from the storm. Luckily, positive charged lightning isn’t very common, and it mostly occurs in supercell storms before it produces a tornado.

[Flup]

You forgot to mention that if you're unable to make it indoors in time, your best way to minimize damage of a lightning strike is to assume a squatting position with your feet together (not near a tree). Lightning seeks the path of least resistance, so make yourself as small as possible. Don't lie down and don't hold anything made of metal.