QUICK FACTS
- Over the continental 48 states, an average of 20,000,000 cloud-to-ground flashes have been detected every year since the lightning detection network covered all of the continental US in 1989

- About half of all flashes have more than one ground strike point, so at least 30 million points on the ground are struck on the average each year in the US

- Besides cloud-to-ground flashes, there are roughly 5 to 10 times as many cloud flashes as there are to ground.

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SITES TO VISIT

Global Hydrology and Climate
Center

- Human Voltage
What happens when people and lightning converge

The National Severe Storms Laboratory is one of NOAA’s internationally known Environmental Research Laboratories, leading the way in investigations of all aspects of severe weather.

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Read More Information on Lightning --> Here

LIGHTNING -- ONE OF NATURE'S MOST VIOLENT FORCES
At any instant, there are more than 2,000 thunderstorms taking place throughout the world. These storms combine to produce about 100 lightning flashes per second, each one with a potential of up to a billion volts, currents ranging up to 200,000 amperes, and temperatures of over 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit. A moderate-sized thunderstorm at its peak can generate several hundred megawatts of electrical power, equivalent to the output of a small nuclear power plant. With so much energy being released, there is little wonder that lightning has considerable potential to cause damage.

Lightning On Other Planets
These giant electric sparks are not unique to Earth. Among the mystifying and gargantuan storms that rage throughout Jupiter’s atmosphere, cameras on NASA’s Voyager I planetary explorer spacecraft found one familiar phenomenon — lightning. Both Voyager I and II detected electrical signals from Jupiter characteristic of lightning. This discovery was the first hard evidence that such violent electrical discharges take place on other planets. The Galileo spacecraft also photographed what appear to be visible lightning flashes in Jupiter's atmosphere. Detection of electrostatic discharges on Saturn and Uranus by Voyager 2, along with radio signals associated with lightning picked up by the Pioneer Venus orbiter and Russian Venera probe, may indicate that lightning is commonplace in our solar system.

Lightning Helps Maintain Atmospheric Charge, Aids Plant Growth
Although lightning on other planets may be too "far out" for some people, for others, the fearsome flashes and explosions that accompany a midsummer night’s thunderstorm here on Earth often seem a little too close to home. During a power blackout from a lightning strike, it’s hard to remember that some good does come from the powerful bursts of electrical energy. When lightning bolts discharge, they ionize the air and produce nitrogen oxide. According to recent studies, this process could generate more than 50 percent of the usable nitrogen in the atmosphere and soil. Nitrogen is an essential plant fertilizer. Lightning also plays a critical role in the natural cycle of forests by helping generate new growth. Areas that are burned by lightning-triggered fires are cleared of dead trees so that seedlings have the space and soil to take root. The global array of thunderstorms serves as a worldwide circuit of electrical generators. Through the activity of the lightning they produce, these generators continually maintain and renew the atmosphere’s positive electrical charge.