Severe thunderstorms moved through Uganda on Thursday sending over 7,500 lightning strikes during the evening hours. Earlier in the day, high frequencies of lightning in Eastern Congo and Western Uganda prompted Earth Networks Total Lightning Network to send out 10 Dangerous Thunderstorm Alerts.
Kabalye Police Training School in Masindi District, Uganda, lost one of its cadets during these storms on 21 July 2016. Cadet Moris Orach was on his way from the dining hall to his home when a lightning bolt struck and killed him. Colleagues remembered him as a “committed person” after the tragic loss.
Unfortunately, lightning fatalities in Africa are not an uncommon occurrence. In 2015, Lightning Science & Lightning Protection: Some Selected Topics found Uganda had the most lightning fatalities in a developing country. According to the publication, Uganda suffers from approximately 70 lightning strikes per kilometer every year, resulting in a loss of over one hundred people each year. A majority of those fatally struck by lightning in Uganda are schoolchildren.
