A man seeking shelter on a golf course from a pop-up thunderstorm in southern New Jersey died on Thursday, authorities say, when lightning struck a tree near him.
The man was in his 70s, according to a CBS Philly report, and was pronounced dead on the scene at Burlington Country Club in Westampton, New Jersey, a private club in Burlington County. He was about 500 metres away from the clubhouse, according to the report.
Eerily enough, The Washington Post reported the previous day that there had been no lightning deaths in the United States in 2021, which was a record this far into the year. According to the Lightning Safety Council, this was the first golf-related lightning death since 2017.
The report explains that the storm popped up in the afternoon, not giving the man warning that danger was on its way. Though the official cause of death had not been determined, town police cited wet ground from previous rain making it easier for lightning currents to travel through the ground.
[IMAGE: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images]
