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3.6 Environmental impacts of lightning

While no one in the Kamchatka study area identified thunder and lightening storms as having a serious impact on nature or human beings, seven people from NAO flagged lightning as a disaster type with severe impact. Twice as many said thunder and lightning storms were common in NAO as in Kamchatka. The stories that were documented on impacts of lightning are related to reindeer, and are localized events of lightning strikes. A Nenets man from Nel�min-Nos described his experiences of a lightning storm: �It was at night. In the tundra, lightning lit everything. All the reindeer were visible. They were frightened, I shouted �khoi-khoi� to calm them down. Then they knew I was near and felt better. And when it got lighter, I saw a reindeer lying near the sleigh. It was killed by lightning. It happened in 1992, mid-August, in the Bolshezemel�skaya tundra, in the herd. This lightning storm damaged other herds as well�. A Komi woman from Viucheisky told about an accident in the tundra when lightning struck a reindeer team and killed all the reindeer. Only the herder survived. A Nenets man from Nel�min-Nos (NAO) said, �The elders tell about changes after thunderstorms. Lightning strikes into the ground, and a fire starts. I don�t remember when, in the 1970s, lightning struck and killed reindeer. Their burnt corpses were lying on the ground afterwards�.