An annual average of 51 fatalities were caused by electrical storms (TEA) in Cuba from 1987 to 2023, revealed a fully credible information source in this capital.
In that period they caused 1892 deaths, said Master of Science Neobil Vega Batista, head of the Department of Instrumental and Technological Development at the Institute of Geodesy and Astronomy (IGA), exclusively to the Cuban News Agency.
Although there is a general tendency for them to decrease, the figures remain very high, added the expert, who has headed the Early Warning System and Studies of Vulnerabilities and Disaster Risks project, associated with electrical storms in Cuba, since 2024.
However, he recalled, in the 1990s, the 2000s and the 2010s the deaths from these causes averaged 69, 56 and 37 annually, in that order.
He considered their economic losses to be significant, but not all quantifiable, which is why their impact on equipment, possibility of replacement, and process paralysis should be assessed.
He emphasised the fact that other national groups manage similar programmes, among them the Fire Brigade, through the Fire Protection Agency (APCI), regulator of the implementation of technical lightning protection measures.
Furthermore, the Institute of Meteorology, with studies, surveillance and monitoring of the phenomenon; the IGA; the University of Havana; Keros Srl, a Base Technology Company in the Havana Scientific Technological Park; and Aplicaciones Tecnológicas S.A., certified by the APCI and Civil Defence.
The programme led by the IGA, of the Environment Agency of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, recommends the application of five main steps to manage the reduction of risks from atmospheric electrical storms:
Know their general characteristics, identify their proximity to the region where we are located, evaluate points of possible impact and paths of conductivity, effects on the environment and their consequences, and select the optimal place to protect ourselves.
Lightning is the most visible phenomenon of TEAs in the troposphere (below 12 kilometres in height), it is similar to a welding arc or short circuits in electrical networks, but on a gigantic scale; it can cause deaths and trigger losses of heritage and technological disasters.
An invisible characteristic, but decisive in its formation, is the increase in value of the atmospheric electric field, related to static electricity and elements on the ground.
Its cycle is observed in four phases: initial, development, maturity and dissipation, and in the first and last the values of the atmospheric electric field are altered with an increase or decrease, respectively.
In this way, cumulus clouds form or approach, which can cause isolated lightning strikes up to 20 kilometres away, and in the maturity phase the greatest number of ground discharges occurs.
