Florida lightning deaths reach alarming number
Four people have been killed — and dangerous months are still ahead.
A lightning strike Sunday that killed a man on Siesta Key marks the fourth lightning-related death in Florida this year, nearing the annual average with two of the most dangerous months still ahead.
James W. Barton, 33, was hit around 2:15 p.m. on the Sarasota barrier island after thunderstorms boiled up along a sea breeze and lifeguards cleared busy public beaches with air horns and double-red flags.
The Seffner man, who was struck on a private beach about a mile south of where lifeguards patrol, was away from the waterline but not out of reach of a heart-stopping lightning bolt hotter than the sun.
Roy Routh, captain of the Sarasota County Emergency Services Lifeguard Division, said bystanders performed CPR until his guards and paramedics arrived.
“They felt like he was directly
hit by lightning,” Routh said about his guards’ impression of the situation. “He did not have a pulse and was not breathing, but they continued to work on him.”
Ten years earlier to the day, Sarasota resident Eric Troyer was also hit by lightning on Siesta Key. Troyer, 28 at the time, was fishing when a jogger saw him get struck. Troyer was resuscitated and survived after doctors lowered his body temperature to prevent brain damage, according to a 2008 article by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
Troyer did not want to comment about Sunday’s lightning strike out of respect for Barton’s family.
Barton’s death follows that of Rico Eltine, 55, of Fort Lauderdale, who was struck by lightning June 8 while working as a landscaper in Margate. Eltine, who suffered what authorities described as “life-threatening injuries,” was in the hospital for several days before he died.
In May, Lake Worth resident Maria Francisco Pascual, 53, was killed by lightning when she was working in a field at C.W. Hendrix Farm along Loxahatchee Road in northern Broward County. A month earlier, Kourtney Lambert, 23, was killed when lightning struck a tree near her at the Woodpecker Mud Bog north of Lake City.
The past decade, an average of five people per year have been killed by lightning in Florida, with June, July and August typically having the highest number of fatalities because of the state’s reliable summer thunderstorms. There are also more people, including tourists, who are outside golfing, fishing and going to the beach.
“With four deaths in Florida already, certainly the death toll is above average given where we are in the season,” said John Jensenius, a lightning expert with the National Weather Service. “When you are at four and the average is 4.7, that’s pretty high for this point in the year.”
A few weeks ago, a Jupiter home in the Abacoa community was struck by lightning, leaving a 4-by-4 foot hole in its roof.
Florida averages 1.17 million cloud-to-ground lightning strikes per year, following Texas, which averaged 2.92 million lighting strikes between 2008 and 2017. But Florida ranks first in cloudto-ground flashes by square mile with an average of 20.4. Runner-up by square mile is Louisiana (18.7), followed by Mississippi (16.6).
Robert Molleda, the warning coordination meteorologist for the NWS in Miami, tallied lightning deaths in the six-county region covered by the Miami office including Palm Beach.
He found from 1959 to 2017, lightning deaths escalated in June, but were highest in July with a total of 29. August had 22 deaths during the same time period, with 17 in September.
“Storms at other times of the year are more tied to largescale weather systems and don’t come on as unexpectedly,” said Florida Climatologist David Zierden about Florida’s summer thunderstorms. “The summer convective storms can form quickly with little warning.”
That’s one of the problems Routh said his lifeguards have when educating beachgoers about storms, especially tourists from other states unaccustomed to Florida weather.
“There is this misconception that some people from up north have that they feel like you can’t have lightning without rain,” Routh said. “I’ve talked to a couple people recently and people really believe you have to have rain to have lightning.”
The National Weather Service warns that lightning can strike from 10 miles away, meaning even a sunny day with a storm in the distance can be a danger.
And that’s another challenge for Routh — trying to get beachgoers with tents, umbrellas, coolers, toys and kids off the beach when a storm is approaching, but hasn’t yet arrived.
“People are just bringing more and more and more stuff to the beach and they are reluctant to leave when they are looking up at the sky and saying it doesn’t seem so bad,” Routh said. “A lot of people won’t make a break for it until the storm is very close.”