about 100 times every second.

That's three billion times a year!

Consider that, your chances of being struck

are actually amazingly low.

So here in the U.S where we have pretty good statistics

your chances of being struck in a single year

are about 1 in 100,000

and about 1 in 3,000 over your whole lifetime.

These odds can vary a lot

depending on where you live and what your habits are, of course.

Like if you live in Tampa and you like to play golf

in July and you have no fear of storms your odds of getting zapped

are... yeah you're stupid!

But there are actually two different types of lightning strikes:

Direct and indirect.

Direct is like Zeus aiming at the bullseye

on the top of your head.

it also occurs if you're holding on to something

like a flagpole, for example, that is struck and it conducts the energy into you.

Indirect strikes hit the ground

and then run up your legs.

More people are injured in ground strikes

because the energy in them

can connect to multiple people at once.

So while the direct from above strike can hit

a person in a crowd

and leave everyone else alone,

indirect strikes could kill a whole herd of cows

in seconds.

And yeah, a lightning strike is no joke

it's a 300 kilavolt burst of energy

that can heat the air around it to 27,000 degrees celsius

which is about five times hotter than the surface of the freaking sun.

So, what exactly happens

when the fire of five suns zips through your flesh and blood?

Well, worst case of course, you die.

If the electrical current gets up in your skull,

it can actually cook your brain

like that famous egg in the anti-drug frying pan.

But the most common immediate cause of death by lightning is cardiac arrest,

as the shock instantly stops the strike victim's heart.

Surprisingly though, 70 to 90 percent of lightning strike victims survive.

I'm not saying they get back up and continue their game of golf unscathed,

because the resulting injuries can be severe

but if you're struck, you're more likely to survive than just die there on the spot.

And if you do survive, here's some of what you can expect:

The force of the bolt leaving your feet

could literally blow your shoes off.

Meanwhile, the super heat of the strike

could shred your clothing or set it on fire.

And if you're wearing a lot of jewelry, or say, an underwire bra,

all that metal could channel the electrical current and sear your skin.

The lightning bolt itself is probably going to leave deep wounds

where it enters and exits your body, so you're gonna get burned.

You might also end up with possibly the coolest scar on the planet.

The unique physics of electrical discharge leaves branch-like marks

called "Lichtenberg scarring" which occur as blood vessels burst.

And the bizzare fractcal scars

actually look like lightning.

It's like getting a free souveneir tattoo.

With that kind of electricity coursing through your body

you're also likely to end up with some damaged or totally fried nerves

which could lead to permanent numbness, the inability to register temperatures and partial paralysis.

Some strike survivors develop muscle twitches as well, similar to those in Parkinson's patients.

Also, not technically an effect of the lightning, your eardrums might rupture from the thunder.

For many strike survivors it's actually the initial trauma

that's the easiest part of the whole ordeal.

The mental and physical after effects are often plentiful and bizzare:

Memory loss, sleep disorders, tremors, loss of balance, intense headaches, chronic irritability, and resulting depression

are all common side effects.

Some of these symptoms may take months after the initial strike to manifest.

Because being struck is so rare, many doctors don't know how to help their patients.

This complaint, along with higher suicide rates in strike victims

has led to the formation of various lightning strike survivor support groups.

Roy Sullivan holds the the record for receiving the most lightning strikes, he was struck by lightning seven times

during his career in the forest service.

But though he survived the strikes initially, they may have eventually killed him when he took his own life

likely due to depression caused by repeated shocks to his brain.

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