Lightning Strikes Kill Two Men in Pennsylvania, Girl in Georgia

Three people have been killed by lightning in the U.S. in the past five days.

Two Pennsylvania men were struck and killed by lightning Monday while setting up a deer hunting blind in northern Pennsylvania.

Two other people were injured.

The four men were in a field in Bradford County, near the community of Troy, the Star-Gazette reported. They were mounting the blind when a strong thunderstorm blew in, Bradford County Coroner Thomas Carman told the newspaper.

They sought shelter under a large wooden platform with a wooden blind on top of it. Lightning struck the platform and coursed down an aluminum ladder. The men who died were touching the ladder at the time.

(MORE: Florida Leads List of States With Most Lightning)

Craig Kelemen, 34, of Philadelphia, and Jason Gamba, 43, of Havertown, Pennsylvania, were pronounced dead at the scene. Two other men with them were transported to a local hospital for observation.

The lightning came from a line of thunderstorms that moved through the region.

"Strong thunderstorms and torrential rainfall resulted from a disturbance that rotated southeastward off the coast from Pennsylvania and New Jersey Monday afternoon into Tuesday morning," said weather.com meteorologist Jonathan Belles. "At the surface, summer heating combined with high humidity to create towering thunderstorms that would create lightning and flash flooding."

The men were the sixth and seventh victims to die from lightning strikes so far this year in the United States, and the third in less than a week, according to statistics tracked by the National Weather Service.

The other recent lightning victim was a 9-year-old girl who was struck Friday in Moultrie, Georgia. The girl, her sister and mother took shelter from a storm in a wooden structure along a walking trail. The girl was sitting on a bench and died when lightning struck a nearby pine tree and traveled into the shelter, according to WSB-TV.

The previous deadly strikes this year happened in South Carolina, Florida, Texas and Colorado – all since May 5.

Twenty people were killed last year by lightning in the U.S. from the beginning of May through the end of September. Lightning killed an average of 25 people per year nationwide over the past 10 years, according to the NWS.

Lightning strikes are more common during the spring and summer months for two main reasons: people are outside more, and warm, humid weather fuels lightning-filled thunderstorms.

"Lightning occurs when abundant humidity and big heating explodes into towering thunderstorms that cause a split in electrical charges from the tops of the thunderstorm clouds to the ground," said Belles. "When positive and negative charges connect, lightning is formed. The taller the thunderstorm, the more charge separation there is and the more likely lightning is. And on Monday, a little cold air tens of thousands of feet into the atmosphere allowed thunderstorms to grow just a little taller."

The safest way to avoid lightning is to be inside during a storm, but the NWS says people who cannot get indoors should follow these tips:

-Avoid open fields as well the top of a hill or ridge.

-Stay away from tall, isolated trees or other tall objects.

-Groups should spread out to prevent the current from a strike traveling from person to person.

-Stay away from water, wet items and metal. All are excellent conductors of electricity.

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