At any given moment, somewhere on Earth, there’s a thunderstorm. And during those storms, lightning is striking constantly. NASA satellite data shows the global average is roughly 40 to 50 lightning strikes per second - about 3 to 4 million strikes every single day. (Older textbooks said 100 per second, but those estimates came from ground stations and missed a lot.)
The strikes aren’t evenly distributed. They happen mostly in the tropics, over land, during warm weather when thunderstorms form most easily. The most lightning-prone spot on Earth is Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela, which gets so much lightning during certain seasons that the strikes are nearly continuous for hours at a time. Other lightning hotspots include central Africa and the Amazon basin.
In the United States, Florida is the leader - partly because of its warm climate and partly because it sits between two warm bodies of water that create perfect storm conditions. The Florida Keys to Tampa stretch is known as “Lightning Alley.” Even though death by lightning is rare for any individual, the sheer number of strikes worldwide means that around 24,000 people are killed by lightning every year - and many more are injured.
