Lightning Facts
Contrary to popular lore, lightning does strike the same place twice, or often many more times. This is partly because weather patterns don’t change very much for particular areas. There are also areas that are simply more likely to get struck because of their electrical ‘attractiveness’ to the forming leaders of lightning. This includes geographical areas as well as areas upon or within a structure, like the perimeter and particularly corners of the roof line.
Skyscrapers get struck by lightning, on average, 50 or more times every year. Here is the Empire State Building getting struck. Notice it isn’t on the very top?
While most lightning is cloud to cloud, there are approximately one hundred cloud to ground strikes every second throughout the world.
Lightning kills 20-40 people in the US annually, more than tornados or hurricanes. Thousands more are struck as nine out of ten people survive a lightning strike but will be left with lifelong medical issues.
In the US, Florida has the most strikes, Alaska the least and New York is in the middle of the spectrum. The vast majority of strikes occur in July and August. Of note, every single death attributed to lightning occurred outdoors; you are much safer in a home or building during a storm.
So, what to do when lightning strikes? Get indoors as soon as lightning seems possible, is reported nearby or, at the very least, when thunder is heard. A large percentage of lightning deaths occurred while people were trying to get to a safe place, they just failed to leave soon enough. Weather.gov offers a ton of reliable information on lightning.
Fun Facts
Lightning can travel at speeds of up to 200,000,000 mph.
Lightning can heat the air it passes through to about 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit- 5 times hotter than the sun.
Lightning contains anywhere from 1 million to 1 billion volts of electricity.
Ball lightning is a sphere of lightning that floats, glows, defies gravity/physics and puzzles scientists. More video.