Woman Found Dead At Trails North Of Downtown Austin Was Struck By Lightning

NORTH AUSTIN, TX -- A woman found dead at the River Place Trail north of downtown Austin was the victim of a lightning strike, sheriff officials said Wednesday.

A runner using the trail at River Place Boulevard discovered the woman's body on Sunday shortly after 5:30 p.m., the Travis County Sheriff's Office said. The deceased, found about a mile from the River Place trail head, has been identified as Michelle Ann Wolfe, 37, of Austin.

Fox 7 News reports the woman was from East Austin.

Detectives fond no signs of foul play on the woman's body, sheriff's office spokeswoman Kristen Dark said in a news advisory sent to Patch. However, sheriff's officials did notice a downed tree limb near the body, along with singed objects.

Once the Travis County Medical Examiner's office concluded its invstigation, it was determined the woman was a victim of electrocution caused by a lightning strike. The entire Central Texas region was beset by heavy storms this week that began forming on Sunday, ushering in autumn weather after a very hot summer.

Lightning strikes are exceedingly rare, but do occur -- often with deadly results. And there are several ways to get struck. The National Weather Service describes five ways that people can be struck by lightning:

• Direct Strike: A person struck directly by lightning becomes a part of the main lightning discharge channel, NWS officials explain. Such strikes most often occur to victims who are in open areas. Direct strikes are not as common as the other ways people are struck by lightning, but they are potentially the most deadly.
• Side Flash: A side flash happens when lightning strikes a taller object near the victim and a portion of the current jumps from taller object to the victim. "In essence, the person acts as a “short circuit” for some of energy in the lightning discharge," NWS officials write. "Side flashes generally occur when the victim is within a foot or two of the object that is struck. Most often, side flash victims have taken shelter under a tree to avoid rain or hail."

• Ground Current: When lightning strikes a tree or other object, much of the energy travels outward from the strike in and along the ground surface, NWS say in prefacing this type of strike. "This is known as the ground current," they add. "Anyone outside near a lightning strike is potentially a victim of ground current." Moreover, ground current can travel on garage floors with conductive materials. "Because the ground current affects a much larger area than the other causes of lightning casualties, the ground current causes the most lightning deaths and injuries," NWS officials said. The mass death of farm animals is often attributed to this type of lightning strike, officials noted.
• Conduction: To understand conduction, one must start with the premise that lightning can travel long distances in wires or other metal surfaces. While metal does not attract lightning, it provides a path for the lightning to follow, officials noted. "Most indoor lightning casualties and some outdoor casualties are due to conduction," they said. "Whether inside or outside, anyone in contact with anything connected to metal wires, plumbing, or metal surfaces that extend outside is at risk. This includes anything that plugs into an electrical outlet, water faucets and showers, corded phones, and windows and doors."

• Streamers: This type of lightning strikes is not as common as the others, but still causes injuries and death. Streamers develop as the downward-moving leader approaches the ground, officials said. "Typically, only one of the streamers makes contact with the leader as it approaches the ground and provides the path for the bright return stroke; however, when the main channel discharges, so do all the other streamers in the area." NWS officials provided a link to a presentation titled Robert’s story as an example of a streamer injury.

So is there a way to avoid getting struck by lightning? Officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says yes.

"No place is absolutely safe from the lightning threat," NOAA officials write. "However, some places are safer than others. Large enclosed structures are safer than smaller, or open, structures. Avoiding lightning injury inside a building depends on whether the structure incorporates lightning protection and its size.

"When inside during a thunderstorm, avoid using the telephone, taking a shower, washing your hands, doing dishes, or having contact with conductive surfaces, including metal doors, window frames, wiring and plumbing. Generally, enclosed metal vehicles, with the windows rolled up, provide good shelter from lightning."

Read more on NOAA's advice on taking precautions to avoid getting struck by lightning by clicking here. In the primer, the NOAA also provides a precaution plan to avoid strikes for outside events as well as first aid to be undertaken in the event someone is struck by lightning.

NOAA offers the following lightning facts:

• 25 million cloud-to-ground lightning strikes occur in the United States each year
• The air within a lightning strike can reach 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit
• Lightning can heat its path five times hotter than the surface of the sun
• One ground lightning stroke can generate between 100 million and 1 billion volts of electricity

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