Man struck by lightning in Prince George suffers only a sore arm

Prince George resident Nels Hansen was at a baseball game on Wednesday when a thunderstorm caught everyone by surprise.

Hansen, like most other people, put up his umbrella, unknowingly becoming a lightning rod.

“Next thing I know, it just hits me, boom, I can see a flash right there, and it hit like water on a hot pan,” said Hansen.

While it seems like a rare event, getting struck by lightning is more common than most might think.

“During the summer your risk of being struck by lightning goes up significantly,” said Matt MacDonald, a Meteorologist with Environment Canada. “On average during the summer about 160 people get struck by lightning, and of those 160 people about 10 of them die. So your chances are relatively high. Way better than winning the lottery.”

“If you get struck by lightning and you happen to survive, even the survivors will typically sustain long-term side effects, so serious burns, neurological damage, heart problems, memory loss, so really something to avoid during the summer.”

Hansen however, just said his arm is a sore.

“I have no idea how nothing else happened,” said Hansen. “My arm is a little bit numb, it feels like the bone is fried on it, and my hand is a little bit numb.”

Each lightning strike has enough energy to power a whole house for an entire week.

With the dry weather the chance of lightning is low, but with an upper trough ridge coming, residents that live where thunderstorms are forecast, it’s best to listen carefully for lightning, said MacDonald.

– With files from Aaron McArthur