Articles | Volume 15, issue 8
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-15-1881-2015
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-15-1881-2015
Research article
 | 
20 Aug 2015
Research article |  | 20 Aug 2015

Lightning fatalities and injuries in Turkey

Ş. Tilev-Tanriover, A. Kahraman, M. Kadioğlu, and D. M. Schultz

Abstract. A database of lightning-related fatalities and injuries in Turkey was constructed by collecting data from the Turkish State Meteorological Service, newspaper archives, European Severe Weather Database, and the internet. The database covers January 1930 to June 2014. In total, 742 lightning incidents causing human fatalities and injuries were found. Within these 742 incidents, there were 895 fatalities, 149 serious injuries, and 535 other injuries. Most of the incidents (89 %) occurred during April through September, with a peak in May and June (26 and 28 %) followed by July (14 %). Lightning-related fatalities and injuries were most frequent in the afternoon. Most of the incidents (86 %) occurred in rural areas, with only 14 % in the urban areas. Approximately, two thirds of the victims with known gender were male. Because of the unrepresentativeness of the historical data, determining an average mortality rate over a long period is not possible. Nevertheless, there were 31 fatalities (0.42 per million) in 2012, 26 fatalities (0.35 per million) in 2013, and 25 fatalities (0.34 per million) in 2014 (as of June). There were 36 injuries (0.49 per million) in each of 2012 and 2013, and 62 injuries (0.84 per million) in 2014 (as of June).

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Short summary
Several data sources were searched to collect data on lightning-related fatalities and injuries in Turkey. There were 745 incidents, resulting in 898 deaths, 150 serious injuries and 536 injuries from January 1930 to June 2014. Incidents were most frequent in late spring. The majority of lightning incidents occurred during the afternoon. The number of incidents was relatively higher over the highly populated western parts. The number of male victims was nearly twice the number of female victims.
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