Results of Investigations into Annual U.S.
Lightning Costs and Losses

R. Kithill
National Lightning Safety Institute

ABSTRACT:

Researchers who attempt to describe the economic impact of lightning in the U.S. are confronted with contradictory data. National Weather Service (NWS) figures place the most recent yearly losses at some $35 million. Such a severe understatement of costs from an official source tends to inhibit attention focused on lightning problems. In general, lightning safety issues are not taken seriously by individuals, businesses, or government. If actual dollar losses were understood more fully, then awareness and mitigation measures might be raised to a higher priority.

INTRODUCTION:

Storm Data is the NWS reporting vehicle for collecting and describing severe weather information. Each NWS field office has an appointed Warning Coordinating Meteorologist or other staff person responsible for collecting local news to be forwarded to Storm Data. Newspaper accounts are a frequent source of this information. If an incident does not appear in the newspapers, or is overlooked by the reviewer, it may not get into the Storm Data statistical base.

RECENT CONFIRMED ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES

Source: St. Paul Insurance Company, St. Paul, MN. During the five-year period 1992 through 1996 around $USD 1.7 billion was paid out in lightning-related claims. All claims were commercial in nature. Lightning accounted for 8.7% of the total number of claims and 3.8% of the property dollar losses. The average annual paid claims for this period totaled $340 million.

Source: Anonymous Large Insurer, Holle, et al., 1995: Insured Property Damage Due to Lightning in Three Western States. Proceedings. Williamsburg, VA, IAGCLSE. Lightning losses to residential and commercial property in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming were sampled over a six-year period. Most claims (90%) were individual homeowners. When extrapolated into national averages, 307,000 annual claims totaling around $332 million were made each year.

Source: The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), Quincy, MA. NFPA publishes Annual Averages of Fires and Losses Reported to U.S. Fire Departments Caused by Lightning. Information is collated by property classification and source of origin. In the most recent reporting period, 1991-1995, each year lightning caused 30,190 fires, resulting in annual losses of $175.2 million.

Source: Insurance Information Institute (III), NY, NY. A 1989 press release from III reported that 5% of all insurance claims were lightning-related, amounting to more than $USD 1 billion per year. In 1997 and 1998, press releases from III said that "lightning strikes are responsible for over $250 million per year."

Source: Clausen Miller PC, Chicago, IL. During July 23, 1997, a lightning-induced fire broke out at 5120 Race Court, Denver, Colorado, in the CS Integrated refrigerated warehouse. There was a total loss to building and contents of around $72 million. This is believed to be the largest structural loss due to lightning on record.

Source: Weber et al., 1998: An Assessment of the Operational Utility of a GOES Lightning Mapping Sensor, Project Report NOAA – 18. MIT Lincoln Laboratory. "The FAA currently estimates that thunderstorms cost the airlines and the U.S. public approximately $2 billion per year in operating costs and passenger delay."

Source: Bernstein, R. and Diehls, et al., Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Palo Alto, CA, 1997. On an annual average, approximately 30% of all power outages are lightning-related, with total costs approaching $ 1 billion.

Source: The Ohio Insurance Institute, Columbus, OH, reports that 18% of all lumberyard fires are originated by lightning. Further, 30% of all church fires are started by lightning.

Source: Journal of Hazardous Materials 40, 43-54 (1995). Lightning accounts for 61% of all accidents in storage and processing activities where natural events were the root cause. In North America, 16 out of 20 accidents involving petroleum products storage tanks were due to lightning strikes.

Source: Hasty, G., National Park Service, Risk Management. "We have determined that about half the wildfires in the western USA are lightning-related. About 10,000 such fires cost about $100 million annually. In 1996 the National Park Service experienced 517 lightning-induced fires which cost $19,576,128. In 1997, the Boise National Forest fire cost $47 million and took 45 days to bring under control."

Source: Hasbrouck, R., National Lightning Safety Institute, Director of Engineering. "Low voltage electronic components, e.g. transistors and microprocessors, are particularly vulnerable to lightning induced transient voltages. Effects range from 'sudden death' of the component, resulting in failure of associated circuitry, to a latent failure where the weakened component dies days or months after the lightning event. Transient voltages also can cause computer systems to generate corrupted data, or experience a momentary glitch or crash. Although the costs associated with the component damage and lost time (and revenue) resulting from system down time are not currently documented, it is reasonable to expect that they are significant."

Source: Department of Energy (DOE), Occurrence Reporting & Processing System (ORPS), September 1990-September 1998. ORPS-reported lightning incidents at DOE sites for the eight-year period totaled 461 incidents, or 57.6 accidents per year on average. Types of losses, but no costs, were identified. An examination of the incidents can be summarized:

• ORPS reporting frequency is not related to localized lightning frequency. Hanford Site, for example, located in a low lightning area, was second in numbers of reported incidents. Savannah River site was the leader in reported lightning problems.
• Lightning-caused incidents included failure of protective devices, equipment malfunctions, standby generator failures, grass and range fires, power pole destruction, and injury to personnel.
• Voltage surges accounted for about 80% of the physical damage reported. Affected equipment in this category included: transient limiters (arrestors, fuses, switches); telephones, pumps and motors, and generator systems.
• Alarm systems suffered the most damage. Areas affected included perimeter security intrusion alarms, fire and radiation alarms (both failures and activations were reported), as well as communications systems equipment (pagers, public announcement speakers, telephone and radio communications).

Source: Computer Security News (www.secureit.com/newsletters.Statistics98.htm). In 1997, lightning accounted for 101,000 laptop and desktop losses amounting to $125,417,000.

CONCLUSION:

Accurate lightning cost and loss reports are elusive. There is no good agreement between sources. The NWS Storm Data reporting system appears to be flawed since there is evidence that annual lightning losses are in excess of the "official" $35 million figure. Further investigation is needed to provide better statistical data. A reasonable estimate is that there may be $4-5 billion in lightning costs and losses each year in the U.S.

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS:

The author would like to thank Dennis Kubicki (DOE-Fire Safety), Ron Holle (NOAA-NSSL), Bruce Lunning (St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Co.), Linda Kremkau (NWS – Office of Meteorology) and Stan Grzybowski (Mississippi State Univ.) for their help and suggestions.

REFERENCES:

Kithil, R., A Risk Management Approach to Lightning Safety, IAGCLSE, Williamsburg, VA, 1995.

AUTHOR'S ADDRESS:

National Lightning Safety Institute, 891 N. Hoover Avenue, Louisville, CO 80027. Email: rkithil@ix.netcom.com

— R. Kithill

Comments? thunder@ucar.edu

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