79 Super Interesting Facts About Lightning [Free Fact Cards]

Hey there, weather wizz! Ready to learn some electrifying and interesting facts about lightning? Well, look no further as we embark on one of Mother Nature’s most awesome shows, lightning!

Lightning is so cool. It is full of bright flashes and rumbling thunder. So put on your lab coats because let’s get charged up with these dazzling lightning facts.

Did you know what lightning is? It is a super-strong electrical charge that happens when it storms. It is like the tiny shock you feel when you sometimes touch a doorknob, but it is 100,000 times stronger or more! It can light up the whole sky; it is like nature’s fireworks show.

Lightning strikes all around the world. From big cities to open fields, even volcanoes! In fact, if lightning strikes a volcano while it erupts, it looks even more awesome if you even thought that was possible.

Lightning doesn’t just strike and then go away; it has thunder that quickly follows. When lightning strikes, it heats up the air very quickly, and that causes a very loud BOOM that is called thunder.

But wait, there’s more! Lightning doesn’t just flash and disappear; it has a best friend called thunder. When lightning strikes, it heats up the air really quickly, and that causes a loud BOOM, which we know as thunder. So when you hear that rumbling sound, you know lightning isn’t far away!

So, let’s get ready to light up your brain with some more electrifying facts about lightning. Stick around because we’re just getting started on this shocking adventure! Don’t forget to grab your free lightning fact cards below!

Collecting all our fact cards? Be sure to grab our Facts About William Shakespeare and our facts about frogs.

Best Facts about Lightning

1. Florida is the lightning capital of the U.S., averaging thunderstorms 70-100 days per year. 
2. The speed of lightning is 270,000 mph.
3. Lightning is an electrical discharge caused by imbalances between storm clouds and the ground, or within the clouds themselves.
4. You can’t have thunder without lightning.
5. Lightning creates heat hotter than the sun.

6. Lightning finds the fastest route to Earth
7. A single lightning bolt can have as much as 1 billion Joules of energy.
8. Lightning can strike up to 25 miles away from the storm’s center.
9. In Florida on average, lightning kills 10 and injures 40 people per year.  
10. Lightning strikes during thunderstorms kill more Americans yearly than tornadoes or hurricanes.

11. When lightning strikes sand or sandy soil, it fuses together the grains to create a small glass-like tube known as a fulgurite.
12. Lightning is extremely hot—a flash can heat the air around it to temperatures five times hotter than the sun’s surface.  
13. Lightning strikes can explode a tree
14.  Crouching doesn’t make you any safer outdoors.
15. Technically, lighting itself doesn’t have a temperature.

16. A lightning bolt is 5 times hotter than the sun
17. Lightning bolts can travel up to 5 km from inside a cloud to strike at the ground.
18. People with asthma are at greater risk of an attack during summer thunderstorms.
19. Bolts Are Long but Incredibly Skinny
20. In Venezuela, there’s something called “Catatumbo” lightning, where there’s almost constant lightning strikes, averaging over 100 strikes per hour.

21. In the U.S. on average, lightning kills 93 and injures 300 per year. 
22. When lightning strikes sand or sandy soil, it fuses together the grains to create a small glass-like tube known as a fulgurite.
23. Standing underneath or near a tree is the second most dangerous place to be during a thunderstorm; the most dangerous is being outside in an open space.
24. Lightning strikes 8.6 million times a day
25. Lightning strikes hundreds of times per hour over one South American lake.

26. Lightning often strikes the same place repeatedly, especially if it’s a tall, pointy, isolated object. The Empire State Building is hit an average of 23 times a year
27. Lightning bolts are not very wide.
28. Scientists have recorded bursts of low-frequency radio waves accompanying lightning strikes.
29. Lightning discharges occur about 8 million times a day worldwide.
30. An estimated 44 lightning bolts erupt around the world every single second.

31. A Lake in Venezuela Experiences the Most Lightning per Year.
32.  A single lightning bolt can power an incandescent light bulb for six months.
33. Most people are struck by lightning before it starts raining or after it stops raining. 
34. Lightning can initiate forest fires by heating up dry vegetation.
35. Lightning can occur between clouds, within clouds, or between clouds and the ground.

36. A house is a safe place to be during a thunderstorm as long as you avoid anything that conducts electricity. 
37. “Red sprites” are electrical discharges that occur above thunderstorms and extend into space.
38. Cameras aren’t actually effective at capturing lightning.
39.  Lightning can influence chemical reactions in the atmosphere, affecting ozone levels.
40. Light travels at a staggering 186,282 miles per second. But sound travels much slower at about 1 mile every 5 seconds.

41. The irrational fear of thunder and lightning has various names: Astraphobia, Brontophobia, and Keraunophobia to name a few.
42. A bolt of lightning can petrify in the sand or in a rock. The resulting object is called a fulgurite, and they’re rarer in rocks than in sand.
43.  A typical lightning bolt can contain up to 1 billion volts of electricity.
44. Radar is a good way to measure a lightning bolt.
45. Volcano eruptions cause lightning strikes.

46. Cumulonimbus clouds generate the most lightning out of any type of cloud on Earth.
47. Climate change may have an effect on lightning generation worldwide.
48.  Lightning can trigger sudden releases of gamma rays in Earth’s atmosphere.
49. Kifuka in the Democratic Republic of the Congo suffers the most lightning strikes in the world, at 158 lightning strikes for every km² in a single year.
50. If lightning strikes a sandy beach, it can turn a small portion of the sand into icicle shaped pieces of glass called fulgurites.

50. Positive lightning also travels much farther than negative lightning. 
51.  Lightning bolts can have a diameter of about 1 to 2 inches.
52. Lightning can also strike aircraft in flight.
53. A lightning bolt can reach 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit, about five times hotter than the surface of our sun. 
54. The extreme heat of a lightning strike causes nitrogen to bond with oxygen to create nitrogen oxides which combine with moisture in the air to fall as rain and water plants with nitrate-rich water.

56. The energy of a lightning strike can produce shockwaves known as “thundersnow.”
57. Certain human activities can also generate lightning.
58. Tornado weather systems also generate especially powerful lightning bolts.
59. A “dry lightning” strike occurs when lightning produces little to no rain.
60. Being struck by lightning gives you a rash.

61. Singapore also suffers up to 11,500 lightning strikes every year.
62. Lightning can generate electromagnetic pulses that disrupt electronic devices and systems.
63. Benjamin Franklin’s kite experiment in 1752 helped demonstrate the electrical nature of lightning.
64. The strike happens in under 2 microseconds (that’s 0.000002 seconds).
65. The energy in a lightning bolt could power an electric car for about 30,000 miles.

66. 90% of people survive lightning strikes
67. One bolt of lightning once killed 81 people.
68. Anvil crawler lightning is a special kind of Intracloud (IC) Lightning.
69. Thunder is the rapid expansion of air around a lightning strike.
70. Lightning’s color can vary based on atmospheric conditions and the composition of gases.

71. Ball lightning is another special kind of lightning.
72. A man claimed lightning restored his sight.
73. There are 50 to 100 cloud to ground lightning strikes every second world wide, that’s over 3 million strikes per day!
74. The “spark gap” in lightning rods allows a path of least resistance for lightning.
75. Lightning strikes can initiate rockfalls and landslides on mountainsides.

76. Lightning can trigger migraines and other neurological symptoms in sensitive individuals.
77. Lightning can appear purple due to atmospheric conditions and scattering of light.
78. Lightning can also strike up from the ground and into the sky.
79. The tallest lightning rod ever installed was on the Burj Khalifa, standing at 2,722 feet.

Do you have even more interesting facts about lightning? Share them with us in the comments! Also, don’t forget to grab your free lightning fact cards to add to your collection! 

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