You Can't Make This Stuff Up!

[Lee Stewart]

Technically, lighting itself doesn’t have a temperature.

Allow us to explain that last fact. Technically, those 50,000 degrees are actually the temperature of the air or other materials as the lightning passes through it. The bolt itself is a movement of electrical charges, and for that reason, it does not actually have a temperature itself.

[Lee Stewart]

It’s a myth that lightning never strikes the same place twice. Not only that, but some places (like tall buildings or areas with particularly conducive topography) can see dozens or even hundreds of lightning strikes. For instance, the Empire State Building is reportedly struck by lightning roughly 23 times per year.

[Lee Stewart]

Photographs seem to indicate that the “channel diameter” of lightning bolts averages between two and seven inches. But researchers who examined melted metal locations where a bolt has hit believe they’re closer to a just about an inch in diameter.

[Lee Stewart]

Lightning researcher Martin Uman has observed lightning channels as long as 90 miles.

[Lee Stewart]

Something as short-lived as a lightning bolt can be difficult to measure. For example, have you ever seen lightning without clouds? Probably not. That’s because, though photos can be helpful in determining the general size of a lightning bolt, they don’t capture bolts inside the clouds. As a result, scientists consider photography to be one of the lesser-effective means for measuring lightning.

[Lee Stewart]

As Uman explains, a radar set can send out “electromagnetic pulses, which are reflected back by certain objects (e.g. metallic airplanes).” The pulses travel at 186,000 miles per second. So measuring the time that elapses between the emission of a pulse and when its reflection is received allows for the distance to be measured.

[Lee Stewart]

Of the top 15 U.S. counties with the most lightning strikes in 2018, 14 were in Florida. Thanks to its geography—bordered by ocean on three sides in a subtropical climate—you’ll find almost daily thunderstorms in some part of the state. The most-struck part? The aptly named “Lightning Alley,” between Tampa and Orlando.

[Lee Stewart]

Venezuela experiences more lightning than anywhere on Earth.

In particular, Lake Maracaibo, right off the Caribbean Sea, holds the record for “highest concentration of lightning,” according to The Guinness Book of World Records. There, you’ll find the Catatumbo lightning—colloquially, and terrifyingly, known as the “everlasting storm”—a weather phenomenon that averages about 260 storm days per year, 150 of which feature lightning. Sometimes, there are nearly 30 lightning flashes per minute.

So, why is this region so lightning-friendly? Scientists theorize that the air above the lake is particularly conductive due to the abundance of methane from oil fields—or perhaps it’s due to some mysterious combination of topography and wind patterns

[Lee Stewart]

Most people talk about thunder and lightning as if they are two separate things, but in fact, they are just two features of the same phenomenon: Thunder is the sound of lighting. In other words, thunder is the noise created as air expands and contracts rapidly in the lightning’s resonating tube (which one professor calls a “tubular drum“).

Part of the reason some people separate thunder and lightning is that it’s possible to hear thunder from as far as 10 miles away from the lightning that caused it. Just because you don’t see the lightning doesn’t mean it’s not there.

[Lee Stewart]

In the United States, at least, men are far more likely to be killed by lightning than women. According to the National Weather Service, 81 percent of the lightning-related fatalities between 2006 and 2013 were men.