by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Chief International Correspondent
WASHINGTON/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – A series of deadly lightning strikes has claimed lives in the United States and Europe, officials said Thursday, underscoring the dangers of ongoing extreme weather across the Northern Hemisphere.
In the United States a 61-year-old archery instructor was killed late Wednesday when lightning struck the Black Knight Bowbenders Archery Club in the Jackson Township of the U.S. state of New Jersey, authorities confirmed.
The man was giving a lesson when the strike occurred shortly after 7 p.m. local time. Thirteen others—ranging in age from 7 to 61—were reportedly injured and taken to the hospital, several with burns.
Four of the injured children remain in serious condition, local media said. It was the second fatal lightning strike in New Jersey in just one week.
Elsewhere in Europe, Norwegian Olympic medalist Audun Grønvold died after being struck by lightning during a mountain trip, officials said.
The 49-year-old former alpine and freestyle skier, who won bronze in ski cross at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, was rushed to the hospital but succumbed to his injuries Tuesday evening. After retiring from competitive skiing, Grønvold worked as a coach and television commentator. The Norwegian Ski Federation called his death “a great loss for both alpine and freestyle skiing.”
WIDESPREAD FLOODING
The deadly lightning strike in New Jersey occurred during a period of widespread flooding and violent thunderstorms in the state.
On Wednesday evening, authorities issued flood and storm warnings across the state, urging residents to stay indoors and exercise caution. The severe weather led Governor Phil Murphy to declare “a state of emergency” earlier in the week.
Since late Monday, heavy rainfall has triggered flash floods in New Jersey and neighboring New York state, flooding roads, homes, and public transit systems.
New York City’s emergency management office warned residents in basements and low-lying areas to evacuate to higher ground. Videos on social media showed water pouring into subway stations, with significant delays on multiple train lines and complete shutdowns, including on Staten Island.
In Scotch Plains, floodwaters reached waist height, prompting firefighters to launch rescue operations using heavy equipment. Major highways were closed in New Providence, and ongoing water rescues were reported.
New York’s Bronx River Parkway, known for flooding during heavy rains, saw water levels rise “very, very quickly,” local officials said. Firefighters rescued multiple people trapped in vehicles.
MORE SUFFERING
There was also suffering in the U.S. state of Virginia, where cities like Colonial Heights and Petersburg were warned of potential “catastrophic damage” due to continued flooding, with residents urged to move to higher ground.
The volatile weather has affected millions, and as the summer season intensifies, preparations for future storms are urgent.
It comes after Worthy News reported on a week that defied probability and stunned the nation, as a string of weather catastrophes already swept from Texas to Illinois, with four separate “1-in-1,000-year” floods that turned roads into rivers, homes into wreckage, and left at least 125 dead.
According to experts, the phrase “1-in-1,000-year event” refers to rare storms with only a 0.1 percent chance of occurring in any given year at a specific location.
Yet within days, catastrophic floods were reported in distant corners of the country, leaving experts stunned and communities scrambling to recover.
“To see historic, record-breaking events in multiple parts of the country in one week is even more alarming,” said Kristina Dahl, Vice President for Science at Climate Central.
The latest weather-related catastrophes have led to new calls to better prepare much of the United States and the Northern Hemisphere for more turbulence ahead.
(With additional reporting by the Worthy News Washington D.C. and Worthy News Europe Bureaus.)
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
Archaeologists in Jerusalem have uncovered an extraordinary 2,700-year-old pottery fragment inscribed with Assyrian cuneiform near the Temple Mount — the first written evidence of direct contact between the Assyrian Empire and the Kingdom of Judah ever discovered in the city. The find, announced by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), offers striking confirmation of the biblical narrative of King Hezekiah’s resistance to Assyrian domination recorded in II Kings 18.
Iranian officials are warning of imminent water rationing—and even the potential evacuation of Tehran—as the nation faces its worst drought in nearly a century.
A Christian widow in Pakistan’s Punjab province is devastated after her married daughter went missing, while elsewhere in the region, a mother of four and a mother of six have also disappeared following alleged abductions by Muslim men, Worthy News learned Saturday.
South Korea, long seen as the democratic opposite of its authoritarian-ruled northern neighbor, faces growing scrutiny for what critics call a widening crackdown on Christian leaders and churches.
Hungary’s prime minister told U.S. President Donald J. Trump on Friday that it would take a miracle for Ukraine to win the war against Russia. Viktor Orbán made the remarks at the White House, where Trump asked him during a joint news conference about the prospects for Kyiv’s victory.
Hungarian prosecutors have requested a two-year suspended prison sentence for Gábor Iványi, a 76-year-old Methodist pastor, once a close confidant of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, and several opposition politicians, in a case widely viewed as politically charged.
In a decision that could reshape federal identification standards, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the Trump administration to enforce its policy requiring Americans to list their biological sex–male or female–on passports, rather than self-identified gender.