system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: If the temperature around lighting is around five times hotter than the surface of the sun, how can people survive being struck?

I saw that the temperature of the air around lightning could be five times hotter that of the surface of the sun. I was wondering how people could survive being struck by lightning and not toasted like a pop tart.
gpt
People get burnt. The amount of heat energy that gets transferred is dependent on the difference in temperature and how long it is exposed. Lightning has a very very short duration, so it can only transfer enough energy to produce skin burns (these can be pretty serious). The air can be heated to a much higher temperature because it has a much much lower thermal mass.

It's similar to why you can quickly pass your hand through an open flame and not get burnt.