Lightning casualties rising in Bangladesh
Print Edition
BANGLADESH has seen a near-record number of deaths this year from a phenomenon that appears to be worsening with climate change: lightning strikes.
So far this year, 261 people have died from lightning in the country, putting the South Asian nation on track to beat last year’s 265 deaths. Most lightning deaths usually occur during the warm months of March to July.
India has seen a similar surge in lightning deaths, with 93 people killed just in the past two days.
The problem has prompted Bangladesh’s government to add lightning strikes to the country’s list of official types of disasters, which includes floods, cyclones and storm surges, earthquakes, drought and riverbank erosion, among others.
As a result, the government now compensates lightning strike victims or their families with sums between 7,500 and 25,000 taka (US$95 to US$310). Through mid-May the government had paid 1.5 million taka (US$18,400) in claims this year to families of 81 people who died because of lightning.
Scientists say warmer conditions associated with climate change are causing more water evaporation from the land and ocean, increasing clouds and rainfall and the potential for lightning storms.
“The months of April, May and June are the hottest in Bangladesh and the moist air quickly rises upward to meet with dry north-westerly winds to cool and form large storm clouds,” Dipen Bhattacharya, a physics and astronomy professor at Moreno Valley College in California, said.
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