A man was killed by lightning in June 2025 while standing in ankle-deep water on his honeymoon under a clear blue sky.
In June 2025, 29-year-old Jake Rosencranz was killed by lightning while standing in ankle-deep water at New Smyrna Beach, Florida. The tragedy struck while he was on his delayed honeymoon with his wife, Leah, to whom he had been married in 2023.
Rosencranz was struck about 12:30 p.m. on Friday, June 20 and CPR was started immediately. He was then taken to the hospital in critical condition, passing away the next day.
The lightning appeared to strike from a clear blue sky
“This lightning bolt came from a storm several miles away,” Volusia County Beach Safety director Tammy Malphurs said.
A witness described a clear blue sky and lifeguards hadn’t cleared the beach, because no lightning had been detected nearby.
Radar later recorded 170 strikes in the area as the storm cell moved toward the coast. Two other people were indirectly struck at the Venetian Bay Golf Course in the city that day, neither of them needing hospital treatment. Authorities called Rosencranz’s death an extremely rare event. Malphurs said it was the first lightning death on Volusia’s beaches in several years.
Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood wrote on Facebook that everyone in the county had been “hoping against hope” that the lifeguards, EMS team and ER staff would have been able to bring Rosencranz back to his wife.
Tributes for Rosencranz poured in
A family spokesperson said Rosencranz “lived with a lightness and joy that touched everyone he met.” He worked at Behm Consulting Group, where a colleague called him creative and hardworking, and said “his smile lit up every room.”
A relative of Leah’s wrote on LinkedIn that he was an incredible husband and a family member to all. A GoFundMe was set up to help Leah with medical bills as she navigates “life without her husband and best friend.”
A clear sky isn’t a guarantee of safety
According to CDC the odds of being struck by lightning in the US are under one in a million, and about 90 percent of people who are struck survive. Florida averages about 1.2 million strikes a year, the state health department says, and more people die from lightning there than anywhere else in the country, according to the National Weather Service.
Rosencranz was Florida’s first lightning death of 2025 and at least the fourth in the US that year, after deaths in North Carolina, Mississippi and Texas.
Lightning can strike miles ahead of a storm, sometimes before there are any obvious signs overhead. The National Weather Service says it can hit as far as 10 miles from the rain. Its general advice for beachgoers is to head indoors as soon as a storm is approaching, and to wait 30 minutes after the last thunder before returning.
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