South Florida averages 2 lightning deaths and 8 injuries per year: meteorologist

A Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputy left a hospital less than 24 hours after his vehicle was struck by lightning.

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The strike occurred Thursday just after 5 p.m. near the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Training Center in Doral.

The incident is part of a series of recent lightning-related events across South Florida. A Florida Keys fishing captain was injured on his boat on Aug. 20. Three days later, Kenya Glasgow and her 2-year-old daughter were killed in Margate.

“Over the last 30 years, we’ve been averaging about two lightning deaths and eight injuries per year across South Florida,” said Ana Torres-Vazquez, lead meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s South Florida office.

Torres-Vazquez noted that while early summer was drier than usual, the recent increase in summer storms has elevated the risk.

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“Going inside is the best solution. When you hear thunder, go indoors. That’s going to be the safest place you can be,” she said, adding that a vehicle is a viable alternative if indoors is not an option.

“The rubber doesn’t really prevent lightning from impacting you; it’s the exterior — the metal exterior of the car — that really helps conduct all that electricity that falls to the roof all the way down to the ground, and then it dissipates,” she explained.

Lightning can travel miles from a storm, and officials suggest waiting 30 minutes after the last clap of thunder before heading back outdoors.

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This report was produced by Miami Herald news partner CBS News Miami.