Where lightning strikes most

Q: Where in the world do the most lightning strikes occur? What position is South Africa in the list? Jabulani, Johannesburg, South Africa

A: Each year, lightning flashes about 1.4 billion times over Earth. A movie taken from the Space Shuttle Columbia showed Argentina under fire. Hundreds of strikes flash along the storm’s 580-mile (930 km) front like a scene from a war picture.

Lightning zaps within the cloud, from cloud to cloud, and from cloud to ground. Only about 30% of all discharges go from cloud to ground, says E. Philip Krider, professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Arizona.  Photo courtesy of NOAA

For most landmasses, lightning strikes most often during the summer. That, of course, limits the strikes. Not so in equatorial Africa — where summer is year round, and lightning is a way of life. The spot with the most lightning lies deep in the mountains of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo near the small village of Kifuka (elevation 3200 feet, 970 m). Thunderbolts pelt this land.

In a year, 158 bolts occur over each square kilometer (10 city-blocks square), says atmospheric physicist Steve Goodman of NASA’s Global Hydrology and Climate Center (GHCC) in Huntsville, Alabama.

The black dot (in the middle of the largest white area in Central Africa) marks the spot — near the tiny town of Kifuka in the Democratic Republic of the Congo — where the greatest lightning activity in the world occurs. The color code at the top of the image shows the number of flashes per square kilometer during the year. Note that over the oceans and desert "white" means no lightning. [Courtesy of NASA’s Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) Instrument Team and the Global Hydrology Resource Center (GHRC).]

Your homeland in South Africa doesn’t come close. The greatest flash density averages only 36 discharges per square kilometer per year — only 23% of Kifuka’s rate, says Goodman. This rate occurs at Costmore, located about 85 miles (135 km) west of Durban, in southeastern South Africa.

Where lightning strikes Earth. Please click here for a higher-resolution map. Courtesy of NASA’s Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) Instrument Team and the Global Hydrology Resource Center (GHRC).

We can see how South Africa ranks in the lightning race by checking the world map of strikes averaged from April 1995 to February 2003. It does rank in the top 4th category (orange-red) but the world is full of similar spots.

By the way, here’s how various continents rank according to Goodman:

Further Reading:

NASA’s Lightning Imaging Sensor Instrument Team and the Global Hydrology Resource Center (GHRC): A map that shows where lightning hits over Earth

NASA Global Hydrology and Climate Center: Lightning detection from space: A lightning primer

NOAA: Flash facts about lightning

Readers' Comments

1. Florida seabreeze activity causes most of the lightning here.  Ivansrvivr, West Palm Beach, Florida
2. I live near Fisk Knob, MI and every time we get a storm, lightning strikes within 1/4 mile of the house, and it struck our property many times. I think we should be ranked up there with the most. LOL.  CharlesImages, Fisk Knob, Michigan
3. My parent's house has been struck 8 times, 2 lawn workers were killed in one. Trust me Florida wins the lightning contest hands down.  Ivansrvivr, West Palm Beach, Florida
4. Empire state building is the most struck in the world structure in the world.  Spetrm, Jacksonville, Florida
5. In summer, Seabreeze effect (warm air over land colliding with cool air from ocean) is like a recurring midwest spring cold front without the cold upper level jet stream causing large hail and tornadoes. These storms dump tons of rain and have lots of lightning. Last summer was unusual, didn't get much seabreeze activity. Thats why Lake Okeechobee is still way low.  Ivansrvivr, West Palm Beach, Florida
6. This tree got struck by lightning this past summer, about 20 feet or so from my house. The thunder sounded like an atomic bomb...Thanks for the interesting subject.  BigTrucker, Pocahontas, Iowa

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(Answered Dec. 13, 2005; updated Aug. 20, 2007)