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Updated: May 25, 2026

Method for Recording Broadband High Resolution Emission Spectra of Laboratory Lightning Arcs
Published on: August 27, 2019
Remarkable rates of lightning strike mortality in Malawi
Monique Borgerhoff Mulder1, Lameck Msalu, Tim Caro
1Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis, California, United States of America. mborgerhoffmulder@ucdavis.edu
Abstract:
Livingstone's second mission site on the shore of Lake Malawi suffers very high rates of consequential lightning strikes. Comprehensive interviewing of victims and their relatives in seven Traditional Authorities in Nkhata Bay District, Malawi revealed that the annual rate of consequential strikes was 419/million, more than six times higher than that in other developing countries; the rate of deaths from lightning was 84/million/year, 5.4 times greater than the highest ever recorded. These remarkable figures reveal that lightning constitutes a significant stochastic source of mortality with potential life history consequences, but it should not deflect attention away from the more prominent causes of mortality in this rural area.
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