56K lightning strikes in Houston area with Saturday storms

HOUSTON – A staggering 56,000 lightning strikes lit up the Houston skies Saturday, produced by multiple storms thundering through the area. And those are cloud-to-ground strikes, according to CenterPoint Energy.

“That may seem like a lot of lightning strikes, but it’s actually fairly common in big storms like we saw yesterday,” KPRC 2 Chief Meteorologist Anthony Yanez said. “But it has been a long time since we’ve seen a big thunderstorm complex like this in the city of Houston.”

CenterPoint explained to KPRC 2 that they use 150 sensors in the Houston area to monitor lightning strikes. On Saturday, those 56,000 strikes were detected between 3 a.m. and 7 p.m.

The company says lightning was indeed a factor in the 190,000 power outages customers experienced during the storms.

By Sunday at 10 a.m., power had been restored to all but 700.

Houston: Lightning Capital of Texas

Back in 2002, after studying 12 years of data, atmospheric scientists from Texas A&M called Houston the “lightning capital of the state,” pointing in part to the area’s urban heat island effect.

“Sea breezes and storms have always converged over Houston, but 400 years ago it was just a natural effect, not influenced by people,” atmospheric scientist Richard Orville observed back then. He explained at the time that with 4 million people living in the Houston area, “plus the 49 percent of the petroleum refining capacity in the U.S. located there create a powerful heat island effect, resulting in more intense cumulus cloud formation and more intense thunderstorms.”

Harris County: Among Top 10 Lightning-Heavy Counties

The National Lightning Detection Network, used by NASA and the National Weather Service, consistently ranks Harris County among the top 10 lightning-heavy counties in the country.

Lightning Deaths and Injuries in SE Texas

In this century, we’ve had a number of deaths and injuries in Southeast Texas due to lightning, according to the National Weather Service:

• June 27, 2024: A 7-year-old Bryan girl was struck and killed by lightning while outside during a family gathering.
• May 3, 2024: A man in Montgomery County was killed outside his home as he tried to put a tarp on his car.
• May 27, 2020: A construction worker was struck and killed by lightning in China, Tx.
• June 27, 2019: Lightning struck and killed a 55-year-old man who was landscaping in Spring.
• October 22, 2018: In Houston, a 34-year-old construction worker was killed when lightning struck as he was installing metal panelling.
• February 6, 2018: A 22-year-old man was working on a fence in Honey Island (Hardin County) when he was killed by lightning.
• September 20, 2017: In Friendswood, a 65-year-old man was struck and killed while golfing.
• April 21, 2016: A 55-year-old man lost his life when lightning hit him while he was up on a roof installing an A/C unit in Houston.
• May 21, 2015: In Port Lavaca, a 56-year-old man got struck by lightning outside a store. He did not survive.
• July 15, 2012: Two men died when they were struck by lightning while sheltering under a tree during a thunderstorm. The two men had been playing in a soccer match and sheltered under a tree on the perimeter of the soccer field when the storm began.
• June 30, 2012: A utility worker was killed while repairing a power line in northeast Harris County. The man was initially revived at the scene but died the next day.
• September 9, 2010: On an elementary school soccer field in Porter (Montgomery County), a 21-year-old man and a 9-year-old girl were struck by an early evening lightning strike. The man died from his injuries almost one month later. The girl recovered.
• June 3, 2009: A man who’d been jogging was found dead on Crystal Beach (Bolivar Peninsula, Galveston County). He had burns on his torso from a mid-morning lightning strike.
• October 7, 2007: An afternoon lightning strike in Danburry (Brazoria County) killed a man who was standing underneath a tree.
• June 5, 2007: An early morning lightning strike injured a man who was lying on the beach a few miles southwest of the mouth of the Colorado River (Matagorda County).
• May 13, 2007: Four people were injured from an afternoon lightning strike at Bear Creek Park (Harris County).
• September 14, 2004: One death and forty injuries resulted from an afternoon lightning strike during a high school football practice in Grapeland (Houston County).
• August 2, 2000: Seventeen teenagers were injured when lightning struck a tree at Astroworld (Harris County) in the afternoon.

Lightning Safety

The National Weather Service has an entire section of its website dedicated to lightning safety, and for different situations. You can download or bookmark any of that information here.

And here is some of the general guidance straight from their Lightning Safety Brochure:

DON’T GET CAUGHT OUTSIDE

No place outside is safe when a thunderstorm is in the area. Get inside as soon as you hear thunder. Run to a substantial building or hard-topped metal vehicle as fast as you can.

If you can’t get to a safe building or vehicle:

• Avoid open areas.
• Don’t be the tallest object in the area.
• Stay away from isolated tall trees, towers or utility poles. Lightning tends to strike the taller objects in an area.
• Stay away from metal conductors such as wires or fences. Metal does not attract lightning, but lightning can travel long distances through it.
• If you are with a group of people, spread out. While this actually increases the chance that someone might get struck, it tends to prevent multiple casualties, and increases the chances that someone could help if a person is struck.

IF SOMEONE IS STRUCK

Cardiac arrest is the immediate cause of death for those who die. Lightning victims do not carry an electrical charge and may need first aid immediately.

• Call for help. Call 9-1-1.
• Give first aid. Begin CPR if you are trained.
• Use an Automatic External Defibrillator if one is available. These units are lifesavers!
• Don’t be a victim. If possible, move the victim to a safer place. Lightning CAN strike twice.

WHAT YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT LIGHTNING

• All thunderstorms produce lightning and are dangerous. Fortunately, people can be safe if they follow some simple guidelines when thunderstorms are forecast.
• Lightning often strikes outside the area of heavy rain and may strike as far as 10 miles from any rainfall. Many lightning deaths occur ahead of storms before any rain arrives or after storms have seemingly passed and the rain has ended.
• If you can hear thunder, you are in danger. Don’t be fooled by blue skies. If you hear thunder, lightning is close enough to pose an immediate threat.
• Lightning leaves many victims with permanent disabilities. While only about 10% of lightning victims die, many survivors must live the rest of their lives with intense pain, neurological disabilities, depression, and other health problems.