Citation

Sepp M, Pae T, Uuemaa E. Nat. Hazards 2021; 109(1): 255-272.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s11069-021-04835-1

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to find out how many people died of lightning strikes in Estonia from 1880 to 1940. Data about lighting victims were mostly searched for in digitalised old newspapers. The journalistic reports were verified with the help of death records available in church registers. In addition, the data were verified using official statistics of the period. A total of 497 potential victims were reported from various sources. Of these, 349 deaths were considered reliable. This means that during the observed 61 years, an average of 5.2 people per year died in the Estonian region. As the number of fatalities may be underestimated, the actual number of victims could have been 7-8 per million inhabitants. The annual average number of fatalities remained practically unchanged during the period, but the share of women and deaths in buildings decreased to some degree. The sex and age structure of the victims corresponds well with the respective divisions of an agrarian society. The correlation analysis showed that the relationship between the number of lightning victims and the number of people living in the parish is high, as is the relationship with the area of the parish. However, the correlation with population density and land use is virtually non-existent.

Language: en