According to the National Weather Service, the odds of being struck by lightning in an 80-year lifespan are about 1:15,000. Those are pretty good odds, and most people live their lives without worrying too much about the threat of lightning, though there are reasonable precautions that everyone should take to stay safe during thunderstorms.
Some people, it seems, are just incredibly unlucky. That certainly applies to American park ranger Roy C. Sullivan, who claimed to have been struck by lightning seven times between 1942 and 1977. Although each lightning strike sent millions of volts of electricity through his body, Sullivan survived them all. (For the average person, the odds of being hit by seven independent lightning strikes in a lifetime are roughly 1 in 10 octillion, though Sullivan’s outdoorsy job, in an area that experiences relatively frequent thunderstorms, increased his odds somewhat.)
Born in Greene County, Virginia, in 1912, Sullivan said that his first encounter with lightning occurred during his childhood, when lightning struck the scythe he was using to cut wheat. He escaped uninjured and didn’t claim this as one of the times he was struck by lightning, as there was no way to prove it.
In 1936, Roy Sullivan became a park ranger at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. Sullivan’s first serious lightning encounter occurred in April 1942, when the 30-year-old ranger was struck near a fire lookout tower during a thunderstorm, burning his right leg and foot. He wouldn’t be struck again for 27 years, when his luck took a turn for the worse.
In July 1969, he was struck while driving on a mountain road. Though a truck is usually a safe place to be during a thunderstorm due to the protective nature of the vehicle’s metal body, in this case, the lightning deflected through an open window after hitting some trees. A year later, Sullivan was hit again, this time in his front yard, after lightning hit a power transformer and jumped to his left shoulder. The fourth strike occurred in 1972, while Sullivan was at a ranger station.
After this strike, Sullivan began to fear that he was somehow attracting the lightning. He began carrying a can of water in his truck in case his hair or clothes caught fire in future strikes—which is exactly what happened while he was patrolling the park in August 1973. Incredibly, Sullivan would be struck two more times, in June 1976 and June 1977, with his hair catching on fire and suffering burns in both incidents.
Despite his incredible story of survival, Sullivan suffered multiple injuries, mainly burns, as a result of his run-ins with lighting. Sullivan’s wife was also struck by lightning once in their backyard, where they were hanging out clothes to dry, though Sullivan escaped that time.
As his infamous reputation grew (he was nicknamed “The Human Lightning Rod”), friends and colleagues began avoiding Sullivan due to their own fears of being struck by lightning. Tragically, Sullivan took his own life in 1983. He was 72. He holds the Guinness World Record for "most lightning strikes survived"—a record that isn't likely to be broken unless another individual also has an exceptionally bad run of luck.
Lightning strikes and survival:
- Despite the common myth that “lightning never strikes twice,” the opposite is true, especially with prominent and conductive locations like the Empire State Building, which experiences around 23 lightning strikes annually.
- Between 2009 and 2018, the U.S. averaged around 270 lightning injuries and 27 lightning fatalities per year, mainly the result of instant cardiac arrest.
- Although roughly 90% of people who are stuck by lightning survive the ordeal, many are left with injuries such as PTSD, nerve damage, and neurological problems. Eardrum damage, respiratory damage, and secondary burns can also occur.
- To lower your risk of being struck by lightning, head indoors to a substantial building as soon as you hear thunder or see lightning—or even a threatening-looking sky. A fully enclosed, metal-top vehicle should also offer protection.
