wpostServer: http://css.washingtonpost.com/wpost Posted at 12:31
PM ET, 01/13/2012  Record low for lightning deaths in 2011 but
tornado deaths third highest; why the disparity?  Lightning
deaths by year (1940-2011) and tornado deaths by year
(1950-2011) (Data from National Weather Service) Out of the all
the bad weather news in 2011, one notable success story emerges:
lightning deaths were lowest in the 71-years of record keeping.
Just 26 people were killed by lightning in 2011, which is
amazing considering the frequency of violent severe weather
outbreaks across the U.S.  By comparison, 551 people were killed
by tornadoes in 2011, the most since 1950 and third highest on
record according to NOAA.  The striking difference between
lightning and tornado fatalities begs the question why...  Why
so few lightning deaths?  The relatively low number of lightning
deaths resulted mainly from a successful public education
campaign according to John Jensenius, the National Weather
Service’s lightning expert.  “In large