Sharks vs. Lightning Fatalities

A Comparison of Unprovoked Shark Attacks with the Number of Lightning Fatalities in Coastal United States: 1959-2010





State Number of Lightning Fatalities Number of Shark Attacks Number of Shark Attack Fatalities Alabama 109 5 0 California 30 89 7 Connecticut 17 1 0 Delaware 15 3 0 Florida 459 603 9 Georgia 111 10 0 Hawaii 0 97 6 Louisiana 139 1 0 Maine 27 1 0 Maryland 126 0 0 Massachusetts 30 2 0 Mississippi 104 1 0 New Hampshire 8 0 0 New Jersey 68 8 0 New York 139 3 0 North Carolina 193 39 1 Oregon 8 22 1 Rhode Island 5 0 0 South Carolina 98 51 0 Texas 213 32 1 Virginia 66 5 1 Washington 5 1 0 TOTALS (Annual Average) 1,970 (37.9) 974 (18.7) 26 (0.5)

Source of shark attack data: International Shark Attack File, 10 February 2011.

Source of lightning data: Lightning Fatalities, Injuries and Damage Reports in the United States from 1959-1994, NOAA.

The lightning fatality data was collected by NOAA and originates from the monthly and annual summaries compiled by the National Weather Service and published in monthly issues of Storm Data. The 1995 through 2010 data was tabulated with data from Storm Data.