Jeanne Barnes, an artist residing in Kununurra, Western Australia, has experienced two separate lightning strikes in her lifetime. These incidents have led to her apprehension during thunderstorms.
The first strike occurred when Ms. Barnes was 12 years old in South Africa. She was using a landline phone in an old tin-roofed house on a hill during a storm. The impact was described as significant, causing her temporary ringing in one ear.
The second strike happened when she was 18, again in the same family home in South Africa while on the landline during an electrical storm. This strike was more painful, throwing her against a wall and resulting in temporary hearing loss.
Lightning Facts and Safety
According to Jessica Lingard from the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM), the world experiences approximately 8 million lightning strikes daily, averaging 44 strikes per second. Annually, Australia records around 100 serious lightning-related injuries and 5 to 10 deaths.
Lightning can heat the air to temperatures up to 30,000 degrees Celsius, significantly hotter than the surface of the sun. The BOM advises that if thunder is audible, an individual is within range to be struck by lightning. Lightning activity is particularly common in areas like the Kimberley and Australia's tropical north, with Darwin being noted as a lightning capital.
To minimize the risk of a lightning strike, Ms. Lingard explains that lightning follows the path of least resistance, often attracted to tall structures such as buildings, trees, and flagpoles. Furthermore, using a landline phone during a thunderstorm is not recommended, as the phone line cabling can conduct electricity, transferring it to the person holding the receiver. This was the attributed cause of Ms. Barnes's lightning strikes in the 1980s.