The odds of getting struck by lightning in any given year are about 1 in 300,000
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And although roughly 90% of those struck survive, the electrical discharge scars some of them with a tattoo-like mark
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It is known as the Lichtenberg figure
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A lightning bolt can heat the surrounding air to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit (27,760 degrees Celsius)
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This is five times hotter than the sun
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A cloud-to-ground strike cal also contain up to 1 billion volts of electricity
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When this amount of energy enters your body, it short-circuits the small electrical signals that run the heart, lungs, and nervous system
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This can lead to cardiac arrest, seizures, brain injury, spinal cord damage, and amnesia
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The blistering heat, light, and electricity can also damage your eyes
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For example, it can bore holes in your retina and cause cataracts (cloudings of the lenses)
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Unfortunately for men, lightning can also induce impotence and decrease libido in general
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The Lichtenberg figures are the results of the lightning moving toward the surface of the body
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When it forces the red blood cells out of your capillaries
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A man called Winston Kemp was struck by lightning back in 2011
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Ironically, the man is an electrician
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“I went outside to save my pumpkins. After that, I was going back inside”
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“I just know it struck in our neighbor’s backyard, and it was bright and loud. I didn’t feel anything”
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“I just came back inside like nothing was wrong. Umm…my arm was sore. <…> [It was] maybe an hour before I saw the marks”
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“A few hours after it happened it really started to bother me. The next day it was bad. The blisters started forming; they were really big” They kept on growing for a week!
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Lightning strikes the United States about 25 million times a year
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And they can also engrave fields of grass
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So golf courses can really highlight these Lichtenberg figures
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