Queensland's storm season is off to a shocking start, with several people injured by lightning in the past week.
A day after an American tourist was killed by lightning on the summit of Mt Warning in northern NSW, five people required treatment on Wednesday afternoon after two homes were hit during a storm on the Gold Coast.
A five-year-old boy had to be taken to hospital for observation after he was shocked while in the shower at his family's Tallai home, and four people were treated for shock after their Miami unit was hit.
Energex said Wednesday's storm featured 21,000 lightning strikes.
"It's a lot for a short period," an Energex spokesperson told AAP.
"Certainly, in terms of lightning strikes, it's been above average."
A traffic controller was struck by lightning on the Gold Coast during a storm last week, and a 17-year-old boy suffered burns last Saturday when his home at Allora on the Darling Downs was hit as he held a metal door.
Two homes, at Jimboomba and Petrie, were destroyed in last Saturday's storm following lightning strikes.
Paramedic Justin Payne said the woman struck while controlling traffic at a Gold Coast school was the first time he had had to respond to a lightning victim.
"I've worked on the Gold Coast and Townsville, where there's a really big summer wet season, and I don't recall spates of so many buildings being struck by lightning and then resulting in cases," Mr Payne told AAP.
"Definitely it does seem unusual to me and it does seem like quite a high number this year."
Mr Payne said to avoid being struck by lightning during storms, people should stay indoors or inside cars and avoid conductive surfaces such as electrical outputs, water pipes and outlets, and telephones.
Despite the high number of incidents, the Bureau of Meteorology says the storms in the region have not been unusual for this time of year.
"It's just been a later start but otherwise it's pretty much normal," senior forecaster Brett Harrison told AAP.
