“We can examine seasonality, and variability through the day and year-to-year.” “The longer record allows us to more confidently identify some of these finer details,” he said. In contrast, locations in Central Africa and Northwestern South America have large amounts of lightning throughout the entire year.Īs the map shows, the highest amounts of lightning flashes occur in the far eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, and Lake Maracaibo in northwestern Venezuela.Ĭecil noted that more years of data has not necessarily brought notable big-picture differences when compared to the earlier maps.
The heating and weather patterns are unstable and changeable at that time-just before the onset of the monsoon, which brings plenty of rain but much less lightning. For example, scientists have observed a large number of flashes during the month of May in the Brahmaputra Valley of far eastern India. The higher frequency of lighting over land makes sense because solid earth absorbs sunlight and heats up faster than water this means there is stronger convection and greater atmospheric instability, leading to the formation of thunder and lightning producing storms.Īccording to NASA’s Daniel Cecil, a member of the Global Hydrology and Climate Center’s lightning team, the data also have revealed some interesting regional trends.
Flashes above 38 degrees North were observed by OTD only, as the satellite flew to higher latitudes. The map is based on data collected from 1998–2013 by the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on NASA’s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite, and from 1995–2000 by the Optical Transient Detector (OTD) on the OrbView-1/Microlab satellite. Areas with the fewest number of flashes each year are gray and purple areas with the largest number of lightning flashes-as many as 150 per year per square kilometer-are bright pink. The map above shows the average yearly counts of lightning flashes per square kilometer from 1995 to 2013. And lightning seems to happen more often closer to the equator. We have to allow such cookies in order to generate a cost-covering income that enables us to offer this website and our service.Where does lightning flash most frequently? According to satellite observations, it occurs more often over land than over the oceans. The intention of advertisers is to display ads that are relevant and engaging for the individual user and thereby are more valuable for the advertisers and users. Statistic Statistic cookies help us to understand how, when, and from where visitors interact with our websites by collecting and reproting information anonymously.Īdvertising Advertising cookies can be used by advertisers to track visitors across websites. These include the cookies LANGUAGE, MAP, DISPLAYSTR, DISPLAYDET and SOUND, which were used for the language currently set, the last map displayed, the settings last used to display strikes and detectors and the setting currently used for playing sound. Preferences Preference cookies enable a website to remember information that changes the way the website behaves or looks, like your preferred language or the map you are looking at. Mouse-over each day to view the 24-Hour Cumulative Lightning Strike Map. But the odds of being struck by lightning in a given year are less than. The website cannot function properly without these cookies. These graphics are updated daily around 800 AM. About 40 million lightning strikes hit the ground in the United States each year. Technically necessary Necessary cookies make a website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation and access to secure areas of the website. We store the time and the selection of your consent anonymously under the identification stored in cookie "ID". Choose the type of cookies you're happy for us to use (you can change them anytime), or just accept.Ĭertain types of cookie are essential to use our site. Displaying advertisements could share information about your use of our site with advertising partners who may combine it with other information that you are provided to them or that they have collected from your use of their services. Data from these satellites is transmitted to Earth and used to construct a. We use cookies to personalise content, to analyse our traffic, and to show advertisements. NASA has satellites orbiting the Earth with sensors designed to detect lightning.
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