Texas home to lightning capital of US in 2024
The Lone Star State dominated the report, with 40.4 million lightning events in 2024, which was more than the next three states combined. Florida is tops when measured by lightning density.
Lightning blazes outside airplane window near Miami
Lightning strikes fill cumulonimbus clouds as seen from a plane leaving Miami Wednesday evening. (Video courtesy: Brandy Campbell / FOX Weather)
DALLAS – Lightning detection networks recorded billions of bolts illuminating the sky in 2024 across the globe, but an analysis of the data revealed patterns of Mother Nature's fury.
Vaisala, a global technology company, released its annual report, naming Teague, Texas, the lightning capital of the United States with approximately 1,903 occurrences per square mile in 2024. Orlando, Florida, and Kingsland, Georgia, followed closely behind with 1,072 and 978 lightning occurrences per square mile, respectively.
The Lone Star State dominated the report, with 40.4 million lightning events in 2024, which was more than the next three states combined. Florida is tops when measured by lightning density.
The increased activity was tied to an uptick in thunderstorms the heartland saw during the spring, with May 22 coming in as the busiest day of activity with more than 3.1 million lightning events.
"There were 24 weather disasters costing more than a billion dollars in 2024 in the United States alone, of which 17 were severe storm outbreaks," Ryan Said, a senior lightning scientist at Vaisala Xweather, said in a statement. "Severe weather can be life-threatening, especially without the right safety measures in place. Knowing when severe weather happens, where the high-risk areas are, and building safety infrastructure can make all the difference, keeping people safe at home, getting from A to B on time, and making sure renewable energy keeps flowing into the electrical grid."
209,484,916 in-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning events were reported in the United States in 2024.
(Vaisala / FOX Weather)
NEARLY 200 MILLION LIGHTNING STRIKES HIT US IN 2022. HOW MANY HIT YOUR STATE?
The team of experts noted that with the increase in air travel, the growing popularity of wind energy and record heat, lightning has brought greater risks and destruction to people’s lives.
Miami International Airport, situated in one of the most lightning-prone regions, experiences the highest number of disruptions from thunderstorms, averaging 115 hours of nearby lightning activity per year over the past decade.
Airports in Orlando and Dallas follow closely behind, with 109 and 64 hours of annual lightning activity, respectively.
Ground operations are often halted when thunderstorms are detected within 5 miles of an airfield, causing significant delays in air travel.
"Lightning affects the everyday lives of Americans, even if they don’t live in areas with high activity," Said stated. "With more than 10 million flights taking off in the United States each year, delays from lightning can severely impact everyday travel. Additionally, delays cost the American economy in excess of $33 billion each year, so constant lightning detection and precise alerts are critical for getting planes off the ground while keeping travelers and ground personnel safe."
In addition to ground delays, pilots and airlines often route planes around thunderstorms to avoid the worst of the weather, despite most mode aircraft designed to withstand a direct strike.
And due to the nation’s geography, major cities such as Boston and Miami can have a beautiful sunny day, yet thunderstorms hundreds of miles away can block air routes, keeping planes trapped as if they were on an island with no way around the inconvenient weather.
Texas wind turbine fire
Lightning struck a wind turbine in Crowell, Texas
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Researchers also reported that wind turbines often attract lightning bolts, adding another complexity to thunderstorms.
Pushmataha County, Oklahoma, saw the highest levels of lightning interaction with wind turbines, with an average of 10 strikes per machine annually.
"Wind turbines are massive structures in relatively flat terrain, attracting lightning activity," authors of the report stated. "The size and structure of wind turbines mean they also trigger lightning. This happens when a turbine produces upward lightning in response to a nearby naturally occurring lightning flash. Additionally, a turbine can self-initiate a lightning strike without a nearby thunderstorm. This happens when electrification in the air at low altitudes triggers lightning originating from the turbine, usually during cold-weather months."
According to NOAA data, lightning kills less than two dozen people every year in the U.S., with Florida and Texas usually seeing the most impacts.