National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

In 2012, there were 29 lightning fatalities in 17 states.
Florida sadly numbers 5 deaths; New Jersey and Texas, 3
Alabama, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania, 2

No.

Date

Day

ST

City

Age

Sex

Location

Activity

Victim

1 3/30 Fri AL Greenville 12 M Under Tree Playing Aven Brett Schofield
2 4/11 Wed LA Ponchatoula 54 M Small metal structure under tree Had been fishing Luther Clyde Baham, Sr.
3 4/11 Wed LA Ponchatoula 33 M Small metal structure under tree Had been fishing Luther Clyde Baham, Jr.
4 6/8 Fri FL Lake Okeechobee 51 M Boat in lake Fishing Lorenzo Magdaleno
5 6/23 Sat VT Post Mills 16 M Farm field Harvesting Connor Cook
6 6/30 Sat TX Houston 33 M Open area Utility repair John Henry JanseVanRensburg
7 7/3 Tue OH Zanesville 60 M Under tree Working in Yard Dick Sorg
8 7/7 Sat NJ Monmouth Beach 48 F Beach Family Outing Indira Tursanova
9 7/7 Sat KS Coffey County 68 M Front Yard Family gathering Ronald Nicholas
10 7/7 Sat IL Nashville 51 M Outside home Stepping out door Steven J. Rybacki
11 7/13 Fri GA Peachtree City 52 M Under tree by boat ramp Fishing Burnette Hayes
12 7/13 Fri OK Ada 61 M Driveway of home   Ray Marshall
13 7/15 Sun TX Aldine 27 M Under tree Soccer Jose Romero
14 7/15 Sun TX Aldine 26 M Under tree Soccer Angel Delgado
15 7/16 Mon AL Huntsville 40 M Driveway of Home    
16 7/21 Sat UT Boulder Mntn 24

M

Under tree Fishing Jesse King
17 7/23 Mon CA Nevada County 71 M Near trees Camping Frank Baeta
18 7/24 Tue PA Garrett 36 F Under tree Picking Berries Mary Yoder
19 7/26 Thu KY Lexington 67 F Outside Installing watering system Kathlyn Friend
20 8/5 Sun PA Long Pond 41 M Parking lot NASCAR race Brian Zimmerman
21 8/6 Mon FL Shell Island 42 M Beach Walking to boat James Keith Brown
22 8/6 Mon FL Shell Island 14 M Beach Being carried Tristan Barger
23 8/9 Thu GA Atlanta 35 M Outside under roof Building Maintenance ?
24 8/15 Wed NJ Long Branch 41 M Beach Fishing Sebastian Castillo
25 8/18 Sat MN Duluth 9 M Beach Sailing Luke Voigt
26 8/19 Sun NC Wilmington 50 M Near tree Fishing Timothy Godwin
27 9/7 Fri NJ Demarest 71 M Near tree Watching soccer game Viktor Ovsyankin
28 9/7 Fri FL Lakeland 16 M Under tree Moving bike James Pinkstaff
29 10/3 Wed FL Ft. Myers 11 M Open field Football practice Jesse Watlington

 

Lightning Fatalities for 2012 by State

2012 Lightning Fatality Demographics

State
Gender
Age
Day Of Week
By Month
AL 2 M 26 (90%) 0-9 1 (4%) Sun 4 (14%)   12 11 10
09
08
07
06 
Norm*
CA 1 F 3 (10%) 10-19 5 (17%) Mon 4 (14%) Jan 0 0 0
0
1
0
1
0
FL 5   20-29 3 (10%) Tue 2 (7%) Feb 0 0 0
0
1
0
0
0
GA 2   30-39 4 (14%) Wed 3 (11%) Mar 1 0 0
1
0
1
0
1
IL 1   40-49 5 (17%) Thu 2 (7%) Apr 2 0 0
1
0
1
3
2
KS 1   50-59 5 (17%) Fri 6 (21%) May 0 1 4
2
2
5
5
6
KY 1   60-69 4 (14%) Sat 7 (25%) Jun 3 5 7
12
10
14
10
12
LA 2   70-79 2 (7%)     Jul 13 9 11
11
14
10
16
16
MN 1   80-89 0 (0%)     Aug 7 6 4
3
0
9
7
12
NC 1           Sep 2 4 2
4
1
5
4
5
NJ 3           Oct 1* 1 1
1
0
2
2
1
OH 1           Nov   0 0 0
0
0
0
0
OK 1           Dec   0 0 0
0
0
0
0
PA 2           Year 29* 26 29
35
29
47
48
54
TX 3                            
UT 1                            
VT 1                            
Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding. * - Known Fatalities to date

Note: Monthly normals are based on the 30-year average of 54 deaths per year (1982-2011) multiplied by the average monthly percentage of annual deaths from 1959-1994 as documented in NOAA Technical Memorandum NWS SR-193 with Dec 1961 plane crash fatalities removed from the data.

Fatality statistics for past years