Analysis of lightning impacts in Greece

In this paper, data analysis concerning human and animal deaths and injuries from lightning in Greece, is presented, for a time period of eleven years, from 2000 to 2010. In addition lightning strikes in factory facilities, buildings, aircrafts and lightning-ignited fires are recorded and presented. Lightning death data have been distributed in years and months of occurrence, and an effort has been paid to connect the casualties with the places they occurred and the actions of the victims. Furthermore in this paper, the relative lightning death indicator Dr is calculated for different, places in Greece to express the relative number of lightning deaths in a country (or province) taking into account its population, its area and the lightning activity Ng. This indicator is useful for comparison purposes and could merely be a criterion for the effectiveness of lightning protection measures, and for the results of educational and informational campaigns about protection from lightning danger.