Earth's lightning capital gets 22,000 strikes per day
A lake in Venezuela the size of Connecticut sits under constant thunderstorms for most of the year, making it the lightning capital of Earth.
Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela was crowned "Earth's new lightning capital" by NASA in 2016. Why? The lake, about the size of Connecticut, gets an average of 300 thunderstorm nights per year. The phenomenon is sometimes called "Catatumbo Lightning," named after the river that empties into the lake.
Frequent storms occur as a result of its location along part of the Andes Mountains, where storms form at night as wind converges over the warm lake's surface, making for incredible video of nearly constant lightning.
Lightning strikes around Lake Maracaibo from the AccuWeather Lightning Network on the night of May 18-19, 2026.
Research historically shown that between 8,000 and 22,000 lightning strikes are recorded over the lake each day -- 16 to 40 times per minute, for 9 hours a day, on 140-160 days per year, totaling between 1.2 and 3.5 million strikes per year. However, NASA more recently estimated that the location averages 300 nights per year with thunderstorms, so that number could be larger.
In 2010, it was thought that a drought caused by El Nino might have extinguished the phenomenon after a temporary hiatus in the winter, but it proved resilient and returned later that year.
Daytime and nighttime lightning flash rate density at Lake Maracaibo (top) and Lake Victoria (bottom). White lines represent elevation, and gray lines are country physical boundaries. (University of São Paolo)
Pesquisa FAPESP says that Spanish writer Lope de Vega wrote about the lake and its frequent lightning in his poem La dragontea, written in 1598. According to various sources, the lake once served as a lighthouse for boats in the Caribbean because it so often illuminated the sky at night.
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