16 cows killed by lightning in Switzerland image- 20min.ch

Insurance company speaks of an ‘unusual’ case. Experts say that of the hitherto 15- 20 cases a year, there are usually 1-3 animals lost per event.

Nicolas Jotterand, a farmer in the Canton of Waadt, western Switzerland, lost 16 in one lightning storm last week, as reported by “24 Heures”.

Lightning frequency is increased in Solar Minimum. The number of human and animal casualties from lightning has increased in recent years, most cases are reported in the tropics, where most lightning strikes occur. Just yesterday, lightning kills 14 people in 6 districts of Bangladesh in a day.

In northern regions, large animal casualty events are less common, but increasing. The most noticeable was in 2016, when more than 300 reindeer were killed by a lightning storm in Norway.

From Black Death and abrupt Earth Changes in the 14th Century p. 34:

‘Lightning appears to be killing and injuring increasing numbers of people in developing countries’, meteorologists and experts say. 

“The frequency of lightning has somehow increased from what it used to be,” says Michael Nkalubo, commissioner at Meteorological Department of Uganda, a country where lightning storms are common. (123)

Thirty-five people including the referee were injured after lightning struck a football pitch in Germany (125). The discharge came from cloudless, only lightly hazy skies. This happened on the same day as four children sustained life- threatening injuries after being struck by lightning at a birthday party in a park in Paris. In Chile, in April 2014, 54 cows were killed by lightning in one range.  

Lightning frequency is increased in Solar Minimum, and particularly in a Grand Solar Minimum: From Solar History p. 247:

“A Nature Magazine titled in 2015: “Cosmic rays reveal the secrets of thunderstorms”.  Aurorae are more prevalent in solar maximum. Inversely it is during a Grand Solar Minimum – the more peaceful ‘Bad-weather- periods’ – when there is a general increase in extreme lightning events. 

These interconnections have become understood more thoroughly in recent years. Scott et al, (2014) suggest that the solar wind controls lightning on Earth: “increase in Galactic Cosmic Ray flux may directly trigger lightning through ‘runaway breakdown’ of electrons, leading to breakdown.” 

“Cosmic rays reveal the secrets of thunderstorms.” High-energy particles from distant space could help to illuminate the origin of lightning.”  

“Recent research suggests the solar wind actually modulates lightning intensity here on Earth, and that an, “increase in Galactic Cosmic Ray flux may directly trigger lightning through “runaway breakdown” of electrons, leading to breakdown.”