Lightning casualties and damages in China from 1997 to 2010

Lightning-related fatalities, injuries and property damages reported in China from 1997 to 2010 are summarized by using the National Lightning Hazards Database. Therefore, characteristics of the incidents including 5352 deaths, 4931 injuries and 69129 damage reports are analyzed. For the spatial distribution of lightning disasters in China, the eastern costal and southern areas have more frequent lightning disasters than the western areas. Lightning disasters mainly occur in summer months from July to September while fewer damages occur in winter months from October to March, which correlate significantly with the temporal variability of lightning frequency in China. Lightning-related casualties and damages in China have increased for the period of 1997 to 2007, and then began to decrease since 2008. Rural people account for 50.8% and 33.1% of all lightning fatalities and injuries, which makes residents in agricultural and rural area the major lightning victims. Characteristics of lightning disasters and correlative factors are also studied, including hazard affected locations. The results show that farmland is the largest category in lightning-caused casualty locations.