A Hokitika man considers himself lucky to tell the tale of being struck by lightning yesterday afternoon and his ute bursting into flames. The lightning bolt hit the bonnet of Caleb Harris' ute. Joshua Goldend saw Harris’ ute burning and said a man directing traffic told him about the strike. The air near a lightning strike, meanwhile, is heated to 27,760C - hotter than the surface of the sun – and the rapid heating and cooling of air near the lightning channel causes a shock wave that results in thunder. While lightning strikes kill an estimated 6000 to 24,000 people around the world each year, lightning fatalities and injuries are incredibly rare in New Zealand – with just a few dozen claims to ACC over the past two decades.
