Editing Lightning (section)

=== Injury, damage and destruction ===
{{Main|Lightning strike}}
The immense amount of energy transferred in a lightning strike can have potentially devastating effect in a multitude of areas.

==== To nature ====
[[File: Explosionsartiger Dampfdruck zwischen Stamm und Rinde vom Blitzeinschlag sprengte Birkenrinde weg.jpg|thumb|Bark blown off of a Birch tree via explosive steam pressure between the trunk and bark from a lightning strike]]
[[File:Black walnut lightning strike.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|A strike mark on the trunk of a [[black walnut]] tree in [[Oklahoma]]]]
Objects struck by lightning experience heat and magnetic forces of great magnitude. Consequently:
* The heat created by lightning currents travelling through a tree may vaporize its sap, causing a steam explosion that rips off bark or even bursts the trunk.
* Similarly water in a fractured rock may be rapidly heated such that it splits further apart.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Foss, Kanina, ''New evidence on lightning strikes'' University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Press release, 15 October 2013 |url=http://www.wits.ac.za/newsroom/newsitems/201310/21737/news_item_21737.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151005162551/http://www.wits.ac.za/newsroom/newsitems/201310/21737/news_item_21737.html |archive-date=October 5, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Knight |first1=Jasper |last2=Grab |first2=Stefan W. |year=2014 |title=Lightning as a geomorphic agent on mountain summits: Evidence from southern Africa |journal=Geomorphology |volume=204 |pages=61–70 |bibcode=2014Geomo.204...61K |doi=10.1016/j.geomorph.2013.07.029}}</ref>
* A struck tree may catch fire, or a [[forest fires|forest fire]] may be started. See also ''fire lightning'' below.
* As lightning travels through sandy soil, the soil surrounding the [[plasma channel]] may melt, forming tubular structures called [[fulgurite]]s.

==== To man-made structures and their contents ====
Buildings or tall structures hit by lightning may be damaged as the lightning seeks unimpeded paths to the ground. By safely conducting a lightning strike to the ground, a lightning protection system, usually incorporating at least one [[lightning rod]], can greatly reduce the probability of severe property damage. [[surge protector|Surge protection devices]] (SPDs) can additionally or alternatively be used to help protect electrical installations from lightning induced electrical surges that risk damaging or destroying electrical equipment or starting a fire. Electrical fires obviously threaten not only structures but all assets, personal possessions, and living beings (people, pets and livestock) within. What, if any, protection system a building or structure requires is determined through a risk assessment. Threats to structures come not only from direct strikes to the structure itself, but also from direct or indirect strikes to connected electrically conductive services (electrical power lines; communication lines; water/gas pipes), or even to the surrounding area from which a surge may reach a service connection as it spreads out into the ground.

==== To aircraft ====
Aircraft are highly susceptible to being struck due to their metallic fuselages, but lightning strikes are generally not dangerous to them.<ref>{{Cite web|title=What happens when lightning strikes an airplane?|url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-happens-when-lightni/|date=August 14, 2006|website=Scientific American}}</ref> Due to the conductive properties of [[aluminium alloy]], the fuselage acts as a [[Faraday cage]]. Present day aircraft are built to be safe from a lightning strike and passengers will generally not even know that it has happened. However, there have been suspicions that lightning strikes can ignite fuel vapor and cause explosion,{{citation needed|date=December 2024}} and nearby lightning can momentarily blind the pilot and cause permanent errors in [[magnetic compass]]es.<ref name="AWH">{{cite web |title=FAA-H-8083-28A, Aviation Weather Handbook |url=https://www.faa.gov/regulationspolicies/handbooksmanuals/aviation/faa-h-8083-28a-aviation-weather-handbook |publisher=[[Federal Aviation Administration]] |access-date=24 December 2024 |pages=22–7}}</ref>

==== To living beings ====
Although 90 percent of people struck by lightning survive,<ref name="Outside 2014-09-22">{{cite web|url=http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/nature/The-Body-Electric.html|title=Lightning-Strike Survivors Tell Their Stories|last1=Jabr|first1=Ferris|date=September 22, 2014|work=[[Outside (magazine)|Outside]]|access-date=September 28, 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140928220906/http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/nature/The-Body-Electric.html|archive-date=September 28, 2014}}</ref> humans and other animals struck by lightning may suffer [[Lightning injuries|severe injury]] due to internal organ and nervous system damage.