You’re standing in a field. Or maybe you’re just leaning against a fence during a drizzly afternoon. Suddenly, the air feels heavy, almost electric. Your hair stands up. Before you can even process the metallic taste in your mouth, a bolt of electricity five times hotter than the surface of the sun rips through your nervous system.
It happens in a millisecond.
Getting struck by lightning is statistically rare—the odds are roughly 1 in 1.2 million in any given year in the United States—but for those who experience it, the "rare" part doesn't matter much. What matters is the immediate, chaotic physics of what that massive discharge does to human flesh and bone. Most people assume a lightning strike is an instant death sentence. Surprisingly, about 90% of victims survive. But "surviving" is a loaded word. It’s often the beginning of a lifelong struggle with neurological issues, chronic pain, and a very specific type of scarring that looks like a fern etched into the skin.
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The Physics of the Flashover
When a lightning bolt hits you, it isn't just a big static shock. We are talking about 300 million Volts. To put that in perspective, a standard wall outlet is 120 Volts. The current can reach 30,000 Amps.
There are a few ways this goes down.
A direct strike is the deadliest, where the bolt hits you squarely. But more common is a "side flash," where lightning hits a tree or a pole and then jumps to you because you’re a better conductor. Then there’s ground current. Lightning hits the earth, and the energy spreads out like ripples in a pond. If your feet are apart, the electricity goes up one leg and down the other. This is why cows are so frequently killed by lightning; their wide stance makes them perfect conduits for ground current.
When that energy hits a human, something called "flashover" often occurs. Electricity is lazy. It wants the path of least resistance. Since sweat and rainwater on your skin are more conductive than your internal organs, the current often "flashes" over the outside of the body. It can literally blow your shoes and socks off as the moisture on your skin turns to steam instantly. The resulting pressure wave is basically a small explosion.
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What Your Nervous System Does During a Strike
The heart is an electrical pump. It relies on internal timing to keep its rhythm. When you’re getting struck by lightning, that massive external surge acts like a giant "reset" button. It stops the heart dead.
In many cases, the heart’s natural pacemaker can kick back in and start beating again. The problem? The respiratory center in the brain doesn't reboot as easily. The brain is effectively short-circuited. While the heart might start back up, the victim often stops breathing. This is why immediate CPR is the difference between life and death for lightning victims. They aren't "fried" in the way Hollywood movies suggest; they are suffocating because their brain forgot to tell their lungs to move.
Dr. Mary Ann Cooper, a leading expert on lightning injuries and a professor emerita at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has spent decades studying this. She notes that the "internal" damage is often less about burns and more about the nerves. Think of your nerves like insulated copper wires. The lightning doesn't necessarily melt the wire, but it can scorch the insulation.
This leads to "keraunoparalysis." It’s a temporary paralysis unique to lightning strikes, usually affecting the lower limbs. The legs turn blue and lose sensation. It typically fades within a few hours, but the psychological terror of being unable to move after a sky-bolt hit you is hard to overstate.
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Lichtenberg Figures: The Skeleton of a Bolt
If you look up photos of lightning survivors, you’ll see these haunting, reddish, branch-like patterns on their skin. These are Lichtenberg figures. They aren't traditional burns.
Instead, they are caused by the rupture of capillaries under the skin due to the electrical discharge or the pressure wave of the strike passing along the skin. They look like delicate ferns or fractal trees. Usually, they fade within 24 to 48 hours. They are basically the physical memory of the bolt’s path across your body.
But don't let the "pretty" scars fool you. The heat is real. If you are wearing metal—a necklace, a belt buckle, or an underwire bra—that metal can heat up instantly and cause localized third-degree burns. Stories of people having "zipper tracks" burned into their chests are common in emergency rooms in lightning-prone states like Florida or Texas.
The Long-Term Reality Nobody Mentions
Surviving the strike is just Phase One. The aftermath is often a slow-motion car crash of health issues.
Many survivors report profound personality changes. This isn't mystical; it’s frontal lobe damage. Nerves that were overstimulated by the strike can become chronically "noisy," leading to:
- Intense, localized chronic pain that doesn't respond to standard meds.
- Memory loss so severe it mimics early-onset Alzheimer’s.
- "Brain fog" that makes simple tasks like grocery shopping impossible.
- Permanent tinnitus (ringing in the ears) because the thunderclap at close range blew out the eardrums.
In fact, ruptured eardrums are found in about half of all lightning strike victims. The concussive blast of the air expanding around the bolt is enough to shatter the delicate structures of the inner ear.
There is also the "internal" scarring. While the flashover protects some, others experience internal pathing where the electricity cooks tissue from the inside out. This can lead to kidney failure as the body tries to process the waste from damaged muscle tissue, a condition known as rhabdomyolysis. It’s a messy, complicated medical recovery.
Misconceptions That Get People Killed
We’ve all heard that rubber tires on a car protect you because rubber is an insulator. That’s actually a myth. A lightning bolt just traveled through miles of air—which is a great insulator—so a few inches of rubber isn't going to stop it. You’re safe in a car because of the "Faraday Cage" effect. The metal skin of the vehicle conducts the electricity around the outside of the cabin and into the ground. This is why convertibles or fiberglass cars are death traps in a storm.
Another big one? "Heat lightning." There is no such thing as lightning caused by heat alone. If you see flashes on the horizon but hear no thunder, you’re just seeing a real thunderstorm that is too far away for the sound to reach you. But that storm is moving. If you can see it, you’re potentially at risk.
And honestly, the "crouch" method is mostly outdated. Experts used to say you should crouch down on the balls of your feet. Now, the National Weather Service (NWS) basically says: if you can hear thunder, get inside a substantial building. There is no "safe" place outside.
Actionable Safety Steps Based on Current Science
If you find yourself caught in a storm, your priority is to minimize your "contact" with the potential paths of the bolt.
- The 30-30 Rule is dead. The NWS now pushes a simpler message: "When Thunder Roars, Go Indoors." Don't wait to count seconds between flashes.
- Avoid plumbing and corded phones. This sounds like old-school advice, but it's real. Metal pipes are excellent conductors. If lightning hits your house, it can travel through the water lines. Don't shower during a heavy electrical storm.
- If someone is hit, they do not carry a charge. This is a dangerous myth that prevents people from giving life-saving help. You can touch a lightning victim immediately. They aren't "electrified."
- Check for "Exit Wounds." Lightning often enters through the head or arms and exits through the feet. If you are helping a victim, look for burns at these points.
- Prioritize Rescue Breathing. Since the heart often restarts itself but the brain "forgets" to breathe, rescue breaths are more critical here than in a standard cardiac arrest.
The reality of getting struck by lightning is that it is a violent, transformative physical event. It’s a massive transfer of energy that the human frame was never meant to handle. While the odds are in your favor for survival, the path back to "normal" is often long, involving neurologists, audiologists, and sometimes years of physical therapy. Awareness of the mechanics of a strike—like ground current and flashover—is the first step in respecting the sheer power of a summer storm.