Gender Shock
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In the United States, men are struck by lightning four times more often than women. Is this due to some kind of electrochemical imbalance? Is it because men are taller? Not as smart? What's the story here? Well I'm Dave Thurlow for the Weather Notebook, and I'm a man, and I'm here to tell you.

According to a no-nonsense-sounding study called "The Demographics of US Lightning Casualties and Damages from 1959 to 1994," males account for 84% of lightning-related fatalities and 82% of the injuries. Now all other things being equal, men and women have the same chance of getting in the way of lightning. But all things are not equal. The fact is: men happen to spend more time outdoors than women. This means that men are going to fill the lightning victim statistics book. It is location - and behavior - that determine the most likely human targets, not gender, or age, or any physical trait.

Here's one thing that can put you in the likely target category: Play golf in Florida in July. Florida has twice as many lightning casualties as any other state because it has more lightning. And a statistically high-injury time is 4 o'clock on Sunday afternoons, when golf courses clogged with men are the norm. And it's not just golf that puts men at risk. Men, more often than women, simply participate in activities that involve holding long metal objects above their heads. Men golf more, fish more, build more, sail more, climb towers more, barbecue more... therefore account for eight out of ten lightning mishaps and tragedies. mmm.... Maybe I'll put away my long metal objects in the afternoon, stay inside and read about lightning. Which you can do at weathernotebok.org.

Subaru and the National Science Foundation fund the Weather Notebook. Jay Allison is our series senior editor.