As the honest-to-goodness saying goes , lightning never strikes twice . But like most honest-to-goodness sayings , it ’s double-dyed rubbish . inflammation not only bang twice , but there are space around the orb where it strikes hundreds of times per twelvemonth .
Among those , there ’s Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela with 233 lightning bolts per substantial kilometer . The realm is now consider the Earth ’s " lighting chapiter , " thanks to new datafrom NASA , which identified the arena as sustain the most lightning strikes anywhere in the human race per straight kilometer per twelvemonth .
The study , issue in theBulletin of the American Meteorological Society , also reassert that concentrated lightning activity around the world happens more on land than on the ocean , and that lightning activity on realm prime in the good afternoon .
" We can now observe lightning flash pace density in very fine point on a global scale , " said Richard Blakeslee , Lightning Imaging Sensor ( LIS ) project scientist at NASA ’s Marshall Space Flight Center , in astatement . " good intellect of lightning activeness around the existence enables insurance Divine , government agencies and other stakeholders to make more informed decision have-to doe with to atmospheric condition and climate . "
Previously , the Congo Basin was identify as the most lighting - active domain on the satellite , and Africa rest the continent with the most hotspot , host six out of the world ’s top 10 internet site . Lake Victoria and other large water basins along the East African Rift Valley have the absolute majority of the hotspots , indicating that equatorial and sub - equatorial lake have the good weather condition to form galvanising tempest .
Lake Maracaibo is not only the largest lake in South America , it also has idealistic storm - forming atmospheric condition : cool winds come down from the Andes and mix with the tender moist air over the lake , leading to an average of 297 nocturnal thunderstorm per year .
The research was possible thanks to high - resolve data point pick up over 16 years by the LIS onboard NASA’sTropical Rainfall Measuring Mission .
LIS use a high - f number infrared mental imagery system to place the quick changes that lightning produces in the top of cloud . This arrangement has allowed researchers to detect the distribution and unevenness of lightning in the tropic region of the planet .
The team behind LIS has build a 2nd instrument to expand this research . It is ask to be plunge on a SpaceX rocket in August .
Top double credit : Lightning over the backtalk of the Catatumbo River , where it empties into Lake Maracaibo . Fernando Floresvia Flickr . CC BY - SA 2.0
