Lightning is one of nature’s most powerful forces, and in 2022, there was an increase in lightning activity in the United States. In fact, there were more lightning bolts detected across the U.S. last year than there have been since the turn of the decade.
Vaisala Xweather, an environmental measurements company, has released its annual lightning report for 2022 that details lightning trends across the country, how many bolts were observed in each state and which town in the United States is the new lightning capital.
In an interview with AccuWeather, Chris Vagasky, a meteorologist at Vaisala Xweather, discussed the 198,227,289 lightning events observed across the U.S. throughout the year. “One of the big things is that lightning trends or lightning counts are starting to return towards normal,” Vagasky told Wadell, adding that there was a below-average number of lightning bolts over the U.S. in 2020 and 2021. The 198 million lightning events in 2022 were the most recorded since 2019 when 223 million events were detected.
Texas topped the list of the states where the highest total number of lightning events occurred, followed by Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Mississippi. This is the same order as the top-five lightning leaders of 2021 with the exception of Mississippi replacing Kansas for the #5 spot.
However, the top-five ranking is only part of the story. While Texas maintained the top spot on the lightning list, there were 14 million fewer lightning events in the state compared to 2021, according to Vagasky. In 2022, Vaisala Xweather reported 27.7 million lightning events in Texas, compared to 41.9 million in 2021.
Additionally, the 2022 lightning capital of the county was not located in the Lone Star State, but rather, in the Sunshine State.
Four Corners, Florida, situated 20 miles southwest of Orlando and less than 5 miles southwest of Disney World, laid claim as the new lightning capital in 2022. Four Corners took the title away from Flatonia, Texas, a town located about halfway between Houston and San Antonio, which was the U.S. lightning capital in 2021.
With an uptick in overall lightning across the U.S. came a noticeable increase in the number of lightning-related fatalities. In 2022, 19 people were killed due to lightning, the highest tally since 2019, according to NOAA.
“A lot of people want to get back out. They want to get traveling, explore nature,” Vagasky explained. “When people are out enjoying life and they’re on a vacation, they’re not necessarily thinking about the thunderstorm that’s 5 miles away [or] 10 miles away.”
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