PlainHazard

Heat and lightning deaths

NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database and fatality records, 1996 to 2026-06-30

Heat is the deadliest hazard in NOAA's record since 1996: 6,736 deaths, against 3,050 in floods and flash floods, the next deadliest. Where the place is known, 47% of heat deaths happened at home. Lightning killed 995 by the fatality file, which lists each death with its place (the lightning records total 1,011), most often outdoors in the open (451) or under a tree (184), and most of all in July.

By  · Updated  · How this was measured

Heat deaths by state

  1. Arizona 2,815
  2. Nevada 890
  3. Texas 498
  4. Illinois 425
  5. Pennsylvania 420
  6. Missouri 272
  7. California 230
  8. Oregon 194
  9. Maryland 130
  10. New York 121

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, deaths in Heat and Excessive Heat records.

Where heat deaths happened

  1. Unknown 2,590
  2. Permanent Home 1,942
  3. Outside/Open Areas 1,305
  4. Vehicle/Towed Trailer 335
  5. Other 235
  6. Mobile/Trailer Home 123
  7. Permanent Structure 89
  8. In Water 48

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events fatality records. The NCEI files.

Lightning deaths by state and place

States

  1. Florida 178
  2. Texas 82
  3. Colorado 50
  4. North Carolina 41
  5. Georgia 40
  6. Alabama 40
  7. Louisiana 39
  8. Ohio 28
  9. Pennsylvania 27
  10. Missouri 26

Places

  1. Outside/Open Areas 451
  2. Under Tree 184
  3. Boating 60
  4. Permanent Home 57
  5. In Water 39
  6. Golfing 31
  7. Camping 29
  8. Ball Field 27

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database and fatality records, 1996 to date.

How this was measured

Deaths in Heat and Excessive Heat records, and in Lightning records, as filed in NOAA's Storm Events Database since 1996, by state; and the fatality file's place of death for each.

Sources

NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, details and fatalities files, 1996-2026.

Limits

Heat deaths in the Storm Events record are those the National Weather Service attributed to an event; public-health counts from death certificates (CDC) are usually higher. Heat records are filed by forecast zone, so a state's total is the sum of its zone records.

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