Characteristics of Lightning Exposure in China from 1997 to 2006

A more complete national climatic description of lightning casualties and damages is essential to improving awareness and education concerns of this hazard. By using China Meteorological Administration (CMA) lightning accident data, lightning-related disasters, injuries, and property damages reported in China from 1997 to 2006 are summarized. Climatic characteristics of lightning casualties and damages are analyzed. The data contain 4488 deaths, 4320 injuries, and 27784 property damage cases, which show that severe casualties and economic loss are caused by lightning damage during the past ten years. The annual average number of death in China between 2004 and 2006 is 0.53 per million people, 26% more than in the United States, ten times more than in the United Kingdom. Lightning disasters in China frequently occur in eastern coastal areas and southern areas, but relatively rare in western areas. Guangdong Province has the most deaths (772), injuries (662) and damage reports (7993) from lightning, which makes it the worst damaged areas from lightning all over the country. Yunnan Province comes second with 1025 deaths and casualties from lightning damage.There are also severe deaths and casualties from lightning damage in Guizhou, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Shandong, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Hubei and Hunan provinces, whereas Tibet, Shanghai, Shanxi, Beijing, Gansu, Xinjiang, Ningxia and Tianjin rank relatively low in the list. When population is taken into account, Hainan Province has the highest casualty rate. Tibetan Autonomous Region, with its population of only over 2 million, ranks the second top in terms of casualty rate. Qinghai Province rises to the fifth, whereas Hubei, Hunan and Shandong, with large population, fall in the ranking. Lightning disaster in China may occur in any month of the year, with less damage from October to March. 65% of the year's lightning casualties and damages occur in summer, reaching a maximum in July. The diurnal variations show that 73% of the lightning casualties and 62% of the lightning damages occur between 13:00 and 20:00. The peak of lightning casualties and damages occurs at 16:00. Compared with lightning damages, lightning casualties are affected by people's life routines and habits, with more incidences during working hours in the day time.Peasants account for 93% of lightning casualties, with urban residents of 7%, which makes peasants the major population of victims. In the report with known locations for lightning victims, farmland account for 32% of the total locations as the largest category, buildings is 23%, open fields 13%, water related fields 10%, under-tree fields 8%, on telephone 6% and storage 3%, respectively. Additional information is provided about lightning victims and objects.