He was initially stuporous, but by the time he got to the emergency room he seemed well and upon further examination it was discovered that he had a fern-leaf pattern of painless cutaneous marks across his arm, back and leg. For example, a 2000 report from the New England Journal of Medicine described the case of a 54-year-old man who was struck by lightning. Lightning can cause unexpected tree deaths well after the strike For some trees when there is a small or no lightning scar, the tree appears to be fine only to die suddenly between two and 12. Interestingly, when lightning strikes some people they develop Lichtenberg figures across their skin. Around 10% of lightning-stroke victims die, and 70% will suffer serious long-term problems such brain damage and personality changes.

between 19, 3, 696 people died from being struck by lightning and although rates are falling around 30 people per year still die from this. Lightning, which is a huge discharge of static electricity resulting from an imbalance in electrically charged regions between the Earth's surface and a cloud, is one of the leading causes of weather-related death and injury in the U.S. So, we've established Lichtenberg figures are pretty damn cool, but what is perhaps more intriguing is that they can actually occur on people that are struck by lightning. Source: Twisted sifter The odds of getting struck by lightning in any given year is about 1 in 3,00,000.

Image credit: Bert Hickman, via Wikimedia Commons.Ĭheck out this awesome YouTube video of trapping lightning in a block: These tattoo like scars are better known as the Lichtenberg Figures. Image credit: Bert Hickman, via Wikimedia Commons. Check out these awesome images of Lichtenberg figures:

Lightning strike scar