Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff, I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and this is another classic episode from our erstwhile host, Christian Sagar. In recent years, reported instances of death by lightning strike here in the United States are way down. The year this episode originally aired, seventeen was a record low. About eighteen and twenty nineteen saw a couple more. But still, let's explore why this is,
Hey brain Stuff is Christian Sagar. Across the United States, lightning has killed fifteen people so far in that's according to National Weather Service data. While those deaths are tragic, that's fewer than half the thirty eight lightning deaths that the nation had in sixteen. And we're on track to have the lowest number of recorded lightning fatalities since nineteen forty because that's the earliest year for which the federal
governed MINT has data. The government actually maintains a year by year breakdown of deaths from lightning and other weather threats during that period. But if you look at those historical numbers, what's most startling is the long term decrease in lightening deaths over that period. In nineteen forty three, the most lethal year on record, four hundred and thirty two people were killed by lightning, and throughout the nineteen forties, and average of three hundred and twenty nine point three
people died each year, but in the nineteen fifties. In the nineteen sixties, the rates started dropping dramatically and steadily kept decreasing, to the point where over the two thousand tens, the average annual fatality rate is about a tenth of what it was during the nineteen forties. So why are so many fewer people being killed by lightning these days than in the past. Well, one major reason is urbanization.
In nineteen forty, according to the US Census Bureau, forty three point five per cent of the Name Sations population lived in rural areas. By two thousand and ten, that number was down to nineteen point three percent, with more than eighty percent of the population living in cities. And today, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency, the average Americans spends nine of their time indoors, which generally is the
safest place to be during a lightning storm. But that doesn't mean that you can't be injured or killed by lightning inside a house, and seven decades ago, not only where there are more people in rural areas, but they also spent more of their time working outdoors, where they were more vulnerable to lightning, as Ronald Holla, and meteorologist who studies lightning deaths, explained in the Atlantic and farmers in the nineteen forties still used teams of horses to
pull their plows, and it took them all day to finish tilling a twenty acre field. Modern farmers, in contrast, are more likely to be sitting inside a fully enclosed tractor with a metal housing that offers lightning protection. When people are killed by lightning these days, it often happens when they're enjoying some outdoor leisure activity. That's according to a seventeen analysis of lightning deaths over the past decade by John S. Jen Sennius Jr. He's a lightning safety
specialist with National Weather Service. Gen Sennius found that of the three hundred and fifty two deaths over the past decade, thirty three people died while fishing, while twenty were on the beach, eighteen were camping, in sixteen were boating. When it came to sports, soccer players accounted for twelve deaths, while golfers accounted for nine, a piece of information that shows a golf course isn't necessarily the most dangerous place
during a storm. Farming and ranching, in contrast, accounted for just evan teen of the recent lightning depths. Today's episode was written by Patrick J. Tiger and produced by Tristan McNeil and Tyler Clang. For more on listen lots of other curious topics, visit how stuffworks dot com. Brain Stuff is production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows