Lightning Facts

Oak trees are struck by lightning more than any other tree.

9 out of 10 lightning strike victims survive!

At any given moment, roughly 1,800 thunderstorms are happening somewhere on Earth, adding up to about 16 million storms per year.

Men are 6 times more likely to be struck by lightning than women!

The bright flash of lightning you see actually travels upward from the ground. While invisible downward 'stepped leaders' descend from clouds, the brilliant 'return stroke' that creates the visible lightning bolt travels from ground to sky at one-third the speed of light.

Lightning strikes about 6,000 times per minute on this planet!

A lightning bolt generates temperatures five times hotter than those found at the sun's surface!

Edwin Robinson lost his sight and hearing in a 1971 truck accident. Nine years later, he stepped outside during a storm in Falmouth, Maine to rescue his pet chicken. A bolt of lightning hit him in the head and knocked him cold. When he woke up the next morning, he could see and hear again. Within weeks his hair started growing back too. Doctors had no medical explanation.

José Prudencio Padilla had 22 ships against Spain's 32 at Lake Maracaibo - and one secret weapon. The Catatumbo lightning strikes the same Venezuelan sky up to 28 times a minute, lighting up the Spanish fleet in the dark. Padilla's ambush secured Venezuela's independence in a single afternoon in 1823. This same storm still fires 260 nights a year - the most concentrated lightning on Earth.

A German photographer actually snapped a picture of a plane being struck by lightning inside a rainbow.

Jupiter produces lightning bolts up to 1,000 times more powerful than anything on Earth, generated by towering clouds of ammonia and water that don't exist anywhere else in the solar system. NASA's Juno spacecraft discovered that ammonia vapour melts high-altitude ice crystals on Jupiter, creating an exotic 'antifreeze' cloud system that generates these extreme electrical discharges.

Christ the Redeemer towers over Rio de Janeiro with its arms outstretched. Lightning strikes it 3 to 5 times every year. A 2014 storm blew the tip off the right thumb. The church keeps a stock of original soapstone to repair each strike.

Roy Sullivan, a US park ranger, was struck by lightning 7 times between 1942 and 1977 - and survived every one. The bolts burned off his eyebrows, set his hair on fire more than once, seared his shoulder, and blew the nail off one toe. He took to carrying a can of water in his truck to put himself out. Co-workers started avoiding him in storms. Guinness lists him as the most lightning-struck person in history.

At the edge of Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela, a storm has returned night after night for centuries. It produces almost 250 lightning flashes per km2 per year - more than anywhere on Earth. Sailors gave it a name: the Beacon of Maracaibo. It fires 140 to 160 nights a year, for up to 9 hours a night. Zulia state put a white lightning bolt on its flag.