Vargas, 18, Falls Into Water After Lightning Strike

MILTON, FLORIDA — Michael Vargas, 18, was kayaking on the Blackwater River in Santa Rosa County, Florida, on May 31 when he was struck by lightning and fell into the water.

Vargas's father and Navy Morale, Welfare and Recreation employees witnessed the lightning strike and immediately began searching for him in the river. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) was notified of Vargas's disappearance shortly before 12:30 p.m. Search operations involved personnel from the FWC, the Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office, the Escambia County Sheriff's Office Dive Team, and Daphne Search and Rescue. Searchers located Vargas deceased in the water more than 10 hours after the incident using sonar and dive teams.

Steven Sanders said, "I heard a very large lightning strike, so loud that it was ear piercing and scared me." He added, "Like 20 minutes go by and I see 10 to 15 cops walking the shore and some went by on a boat. They let us know there was a lightning strike and didn't say much else."

Martin Murphy, a senior scientist at Vaisala Xweather, reviewed lightning data that recorded 22 cloud-to-ground strokes between 12:15 p.m. and 12:36 p.m. near Milton. Michael Mugrage, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Mobile, Alabama, stated, "There was that one storm that decided to really get going there over the Milton area and managed to deepen."

Emily Powell, assistant state climatologist at the Florida Climate Center, said, "Also, what catches people off guard is the lighting can happen at the periphery of the storm and strike 10 miles away." She also said, "Once convection is triggered the thunderstorms can develop really rapidly." Powell added, "A good percentage of lightning injuries are associated with leisure activities, particularly boating, fishing and golfing, all of which are popularly in summer." Florida has recorded 100 lightning-related deaths since 2006, and an average of 17 people die annually from lightning strikes in the U.S. since 2016, according to the National Lightning Safety Council.