About 90% of people struck by lightning survive, according to CDC data. That’s a surprisingly high number, but survival depends heavily on what happens in the minutes immediately after a strike, and many survivors face lasting health problems. Whether you want to know how to avoid getting hit, what to do if someone near you is struck, or what recovery actually looks like, here’s what matters.
How Lightning Actually Hits People
Most people picture lightning as a single bolt hitting someone directly. That’s actually the least common way people are struck. The National Weather Service identifies five distinct pathways, and understanding them changes how you think about safety.
Ground current causes the most lightning deaths and injuries. When lightning hits a tree, a pole, or even open ground, the energy spreads outward along the surface. It enters your body through whichever foot is closer to the strike point, travels through your cardiovascular or nervous system, and exits through the other foot. The farther apart your contact points with the ground, the more dangerous this becomes.
Side flash happens when lightning hits a tall object near you and part of the current jumps to your body. This is why sheltering under a tree is one of the most dangerous things you can do during a thunderstorm. It typically occurs when you’re within a foot or two of the struck object.
Conduction is responsible for most indoor lightning injuries. Lightning travels through wires, plumbing, and metal surfaces. If you’re touching a faucet, using a corded phone, or leaning against a metal window frame, you’re connected to the outside.
Direct strikes are the rarest but most potentially deadly. They happen most often to people standing in open areas. Even in a direct hit, some of the current flows along the skin’s surface rather than through the body, a phenomenon called flashover, which is one reason survival rates are as high as they are.
What Lightning Does to the Body
Lightning delivers a massive burst of direct current that disrupts the body’s electrical systems. The heart and brain are the primary targets.
The most immediate danger is cardiac arrest. Lightning can short-circuit the heart, stopping it or throwing it into a chaotic rhythm. In many cases, the heart restarts on its own after the initial shock, similar to what a defibrillator does. But here’s the catch: the strike can also paralyze the brain’s respiratory center, meaning the person stops breathing even after their heart starts beating again. Without assisted breathing, the lack of oxygen causes the heart to stop a second time. This secondary arrest is what kills many victims who might otherwise have survived.
The nervous system takes significant damage too. Seizures, loss of consciousness, and confusion are common immediately after a strike. A condition called keraunoparalysis, or lightning paralysis, can leave the legs (and sometimes arms) temporarily paralyzed, cold, and pulseless. This usually resolves within several hours, though some permanent weakness occasionally remains.
Some survivors develop distinctive fern-shaped marks on their skin called Lichtenberg figures. These branching, reddish patterns are considered a telltale sign of a lightning strike.
If Someone Near You Is Struck
The single most important thing to know: a person who has been struck by lightning does not carry an electrical charge. It is completely safe to touch them. This misconception has cost lives when bystanders hesitated to help.
Check for breathing and a pulse immediately. If the person isn’t breathing, start mouth-to-mouth rescue breaths. If there’s no pulse, begin CPR and continue until emergency responders arrive. Because the heart often restarts on its own after a lightning strike but breathing may not, keeping air moving into the lungs is critical. Without it, the person can go into cardiac arrest a second time from oxygen deprivation.
In situations where lightning has struck a group of people, emergency responders use what’s called “reverse triage.” Normally in a mass casualty event, medics focus on people who are responsive and skip those who appear dead. With lightning, the opposite applies. People in cardiac arrest from a strike have a much higher survival rate than cardiac arrest patients in general, so they get attention first. If you’re the only bystander, prioritize anyone who isn’t breathing or doesn’t have a pulse.
How to Avoid Getting Hit
The best survival strategy is never being in the path of lightning in the first place. The National Weather Service recommends stopping all outdoor activities if you see lightning, hear thunder, or notice threatening skies. Thunder is audible from roughly 10 miles away, and if you can hear it, you’re within striking distance.
After the storm seems to pass, wait at least 30 minutes from the last clap of thunder before going back outside. Electrical charges linger in clouds longer than most people expect.
Your safest option is a fully enclosed building with wiring and plumbing. The second-best option is a hard-topped vehicle with the windows closed. Cars protect you not because of the rubber tires (lightning that has traveled miles through air is not stopped by a few inches of rubber) but because the metal frame acts as a Faraday cage, routing the current around the outside of the vehicle and into the ground.
If you’re caught outside with no shelter available, avoid being the tallest object in an open area. Stay away from isolated trees, metal fences, and bodies of water. Get off elevated terrain. Crouch low with your feet together to minimize the distance between your contact points with the ground, which reduces the danger from ground current.
What to Avoid Indoors
Being inside a building doesn’t make you completely safe. Lightning can reach you through several pathways that people rarely think about.
- Plumbing: Do not shower, bathe, wash dishes, or even wash your hands during a thunderstorm. Lightning travels through pipes, and while plastic plumbing may carry less risk than metal, the CDC recommends avoiding all contact with running water.
- Corded electronics: Stay away from anything plugged into an outlet, including computers, gaming consoles, and corded phones. Cell phones and cordless phones are fine since they have no physical connection to outside wiring.
- Concrete: Do not lie on concrete floors or lean against concrete walls. These often contain metal rebar or wire mesh that can conduct lightning.
- Windows and doors: Stay away from these, and avoid porches and balconies entirely.
Long-Term Effects of Surviving a Strike
Surviving the initial strike is only part of the story. Many lightning survivors deal with chronic health issues that can last months, years, or permanently. The most common long-term problems are cognitive deficits, chronic pain syndromes, and damage to the body’s involuntary nervous system.
Cognitive effects often resemble post-concussive syndrome: difficulty concentrating, memory problems, attention deficits, and persistent sleep disturbances. These can be frustrating because they’re invisible to others and may not appear immediately after the strike. Peripheral nerve damage causes ongoing numbness, tingling, and weakness in the limbs. Some survivors develop cataracts within days of the strike. Erectile dysfunction is another documented long-term consequence, resulting from damage to the nerves that regulate involuntary body functions.
Recovery timelines vary enormously. Some people return to normal function within weeks. Others deal with neurological symptoms for years. Support groups for lightning strike survivors exist and can be valuable, since the constellation of symptoms (sleep problems, pain, cognitive fog, mood changes) is specific enough that connecting with others who’ve experienced it can help with both practical coping and the psychological toll of an injury most people don’t understand.