Lightning

Where lightning lives: two decades of satellite observation distilled into a global map of flash density, from the Congo's storm engine to the lake in Venezuela that lights up three hundred nights a year.

3 episodes

Continue EP3

Source: NASA LIS/OTD High Resolution Full Climatology
Coverage: 1995 to 2014 climatology · global grid
Catalogue: 133,725 grid cells
Peril type: Meteorological (convective)
Updated: 1995–2014 climatology

The lightning map · long-run climatology

Most electrified region

158 fl/km²/yr

Congo Basin, DR Congo

Lake Maracaibo

110 fl/km²/yr

the lightning capital's peak cell

Grid cells mapped

133,725

half-degree cells with lightning

Extreme hotspots flagged

480

density above 50 fl/km²/yr

Climatology window

1995–2014

NASA LIS/OTD satellite record

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New episode: Where Lightning Lives

5 Jul 2026

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Episodes

1 EP1

EP1 - Where Lightning Lives

NEW

The global flash-density map: 133,725 half-degree cells of satellite-measured lightning, from the tropics' daily storms to the poles' silence.

Released Jul 26

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2 EP2

EP2 - The Hotspot Record

NEW

The planet's most electrified places, ranked: every extreme-density cell in the climatology, with the regions and storm systems behind them.

Released Jul 26

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3 EP3

EP3 - Lake Maracaibo — The Lightning Capital

NEW

The most electrified place on Earth: the Catatumbo storms fire on roughly three hundred nights a year where Andean winds meet a warm tropical lake.

Released Jul 26

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About this data

Two decades of satellite lightning observation distilled into a global climatology: how often lightning strikes every half-degree cell on Earth, and where the planet's storm engines concentrate it.

Source: NASA LIS/OTD High Resolution Full Climatology
Coverage: 1995 to 2014 climatology · global grid
Granularity: Flash density per half-degree cell; flagged extreme-density hotspots
Peril type: Meteorological (convective), climate-driven
Framing: Long-run climatology, not live storm tracking

This record is a CLIMATOLOGY: it maps where lightning lives on average, not individual storms, so episodes are organised by hotspot rather than by dated event. It is a half-degree grid, on which the Congo Basin's broad cluster ranks highest (peak cell 157.7 fl/km²/yr); NASA's finer 0.1° climatology (Albrecht et al. 2016) instead crowns Lake Maracaibo the world's single most electrified spot. A cell at 79N reads 201.8 fl/km²/yr, a known sensor artifact kept visible but held out of the colour scales and rankings. Lightning matters to risk twice over: directly (strikes on people, property and grids) and as the dominant natural ignition source for wildfire.

Key events

#1
Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela · Every year
Crowned the world's number-one lightning hotspot on NASA's finer 0.1° climatology (Albrecht et al. 2016): the Catatumbo storms fire on roughly 300 nights a year where mountain winds meet a warm tropical lake. Its peak cell reaches 110 flashes per km² a year in this record.
158
Congo Basin · Year-round
The most electrified broad region on this half-degree record, with a peak cell of 157.7 flashes per square kilometre a year and dense rural populations beneath it. Broad clusters like this rank above Maracaibo at half-degree resolution.
469
Dronka, Egypt · Nov 1994
Lightning struck fuel-storage tanks during a storm and burning fuel swept a village: the deadliest lightning-initiated disaster on record.
US #1
Florida's lightning alley · Jun-Sep
The most struck corridor in North America runs Tampa to Orlando, where sea breezes collide daily each summer over dense, insured exposure.

View all → The Hotspot Record

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