When lightning strikes near you, even without a direct hit, the electrical energy can still reach your body through the ground, nearby objects, or indoor wiring. About 40 million lightning strikes hit the ground in the United States each year, and ground current from nearby strikes is the single largest cause of lightning deaths and injuries. Almost 90% of lightning strike victims survive, but the effects of a close strike range from harmless to life-threatening depending on your distance, your posture, and what you’re standing near.
How a Nearby Strike Can Still Hurt You
Lightning doesn’t have to hit you directly to injure you. When a bolt strikes the ground or a tall object like a tree, much of the energy spreads outward along the ground surface. This is called ground current, and it affects a far larger area than the strike point itself. The electrical charge enters your body at the contact point closest to where it struck, travels through your cardiovascular and nervous systems, and exits at the contact point farthest away. The wider the distance between those two points on your body, the greater the danger. This is why lightning ground current kills large farm animals so often: a cow’s front and back legs are far apart, creating a large voltage difference.
If you’ve taken shelter under a tree that gets struck, a portion of the current can jump from the tree to your body. This is called a side flash, and it typically happens when you’re within a foot or two of the object that was hit. Standing close to a tall, isolated object during a storm is one of the most dangerous positions you can be in.
Warning Signs a Strike Is About to Happen
Your body can actually signal that a strike is imminent. When the air around you becomes heavily charged with static electricity, your hair may stand on end, you might feel tingling on your skin, and metal objects nearby may buzz or hum. This is the final warning. You have seconds, not minutes, before a possible discharge. The famous 1975 photo of brothers Sean and Michael McQuilken at Moran Point in the Sierra Nevada captured this exact moment: their hair stood straight up just before lightning struck nearby, seriously injuring one member of their group. Michael McQuilken still shares his story to warn hikers that standing-up hair on a mountaintop means you need to move immediately.
You can also estimate how close lightning is using the flash-to-bang method. Since light reaches you almost instantly and thunder travels about one mile every five seconds, you divide the number of seconds between the flash and the thunder by five. If you count five seconds, the strike was one mile away. Fifteen seconds means three miles. If the flash and boom are nearly simultaneous, the strike was dangerously close.
What a Close Strike Does to Your Body
The immediate effects of a nearby lightning strike depend on how much current reaches you. At the mild end, you might feel a sharp jolt, muscle contractions, or brief confusion. At the severe end, the electrical charge can cause cardiac arrest, loss of consciousness, or dangerous heart rhythm disturbances. Cardiac arrest from an abnormal heart rhythm at the moment of the strike is the most common cause of death in lightning injuries.
A distinctive condition called keraunoparalysis, or lightning paralysis, is common after a close strike. Your legs (and sometimes arms) become temporarily paralyzed, cold, mottled, and pulseless. This looks alarming but usually resolves within several hours, though some permanent weakness can remain. Eardrum rupture is another frequent injury, even from strikes that don’t make direct contact. The shockwave from thunder at close range carries enough force to perforate the membrane.
One of the more striking visible effects is a fern-like pattern that can appear on the skin, known as Lichtenberg figures. These branching, reddish marks result from tiny blood vessels rupturing beneath the skin surface due to the electrical discharge. They look dramatic but are essentially first-degree burns. In most cases they disappear completely within 24 hours, and the underlying skin heals within a few weeks.
Long-Term Effects That Can Appear Later
Even people who seem fine immediately after a nearby strike can develop problems weeks or months later. In reviews of lightning and electrical injury survivors, about 71% report persistent memory problems, 63% have difficulty concentrating, and 50% describe a general loss of mental sharpness. Depression, anxiety, irritability, chronic fatigue, and PTSD are all common in the aftermath.
Some neurological consequences don’t appear right away. Personality changes, emotional instability, and cognitive decline can emerge after a delay. In rare cases, motor neuron diseases resembling ALS have been reported, sometimes surfacing years after the initial event. Chronic pain affects roughly 71% of survivors and can itself worsen attention and concentration problems over time. Vision changes, including long-term cataract development, have also been documented.
These delayed effects are part of what makes a close lightning strike so deceptive. Feeling okay afterward doesn’t necessarily mean you are okay. Any neurological symptoms that develop in the weeks or months following a strike, even subtle ones like increased forgetfulness or mood changes, are worth taking seriously.
What to Do If Someone Near You Is Struck
A person hit by lightning does not carry an electrical charge. You can safely touch them and provide help immediately. If the person isn’t breathing, has no pulse, or isn’t moving, start CPR right away. Call emergency services. Try to prevent the person from getting cold, and if you can see burns, cover them with a sterile gauze bandage or clean cloth. Avoid using towels or blankets, since loose fibers can stick to burned skin. Don’t move the person unless there’s an immediate threat like ongoing lightning activity in an exposed area.
Indoor Risks During a Close Strike
About one-third of lightning injuries actually occur indoors. Lightning enters buildings in three ways: a direct hit to the structure, through wires or pipes that extend outside, or through the ground itself. Once inside, the current can travel through electrical wiring, plumbing, phone lines, and cable or antenna systems. It can even move through metal reinforcement bars in concrete walls and floors.
This means that during an active thunderstorm, running water is a real hazard. Don’t shower, wash dishes, or bathe. Corded phones are unsafe because the line provides a direct path for current, though cordless and cell phones are fine. Avoid touching electronic equipment plugged into wall outlets. Plastic pipes may carry slightly less risk than metal ones, but the safest approach is to avoid all contact with plumbing until the storm passes.
How to Reduce Your Risk Outdoors
If you can hear thunder, you’re within striking range. Lightning can strike 10 or more miles from the center of a storm, sometimes from what looks like a partly clear sky. The safest response is to get inside a substantial building or a hard-topped vehicle as quickly as possible. If you’re caught in the open, avoid isolated trees, hilltops, open fields, and bodies of water. Stay away from metal fences, poles, and equipment.
If you feel your hair stand up, tingling on your skin, or hear a crackling buzz, crouch low with your feet together to minimize the distance between your two ground contact points. This reduces the voltage difference that ground current can create across your body. Getting your feet close together is one of the simplest things you can do to lower the severity of a ground current injury if a strike hits nearby.