In a stormy year for the US, only 26 people died from lightning strikes.This is less than half the recent average of 55 deaths per year and is well down on the sort of numbers that we were looking at in the 1940's. Back then, although the population was around half what it is now, lightning killed around 300 people each year.Lightning is an atmospheric discharge of electricity accompanied by thunder, which occurs typically during thunderstorms when, in an atmospheric electrical discharge, a bolt of lightning can travel at speeds of 220,000 km/h and can reach temperatures approaching 30,000 C.