Storm Facts

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.

In 1859, the largest recorded geomagnetic storm struck Earth, causing auroras visible as far south as the Caribbean and enabling telegraph systems to operate even after being disconnected from their power supplies.