TEXAS - Here's a not-so-shocking bit of weather news: Texas leads the nation with more lightning strikes than any other state.
- Texas leads nation in lightning strikes
- Florida ranks second
- Cool weather last spring resulted in fewer lightning strikes
According to data from the National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN), as many as 2,483,805 negative cloud-to-ground flashes -- the most common type of lightning -- hit the Lone Star State in 2018.
Nolan County, which is located in the Texas Big Country region near Abilene, had the highest flash count per square mile of any Texas county.
In total, there were 17,804,321 lightning flashes across the country last year alone, and that's down 11 percent (roughly two million) from the 10-year average according to Vaisala, the global company tasked with running the NLDN.
Vaisala's 2018 Annual Lightning Report ranks Florida in second place with slightly fewer than 1.4 million strikes, and Oklahoma takes the third spot with nearly 960,000 flashes.
“Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri all had relatively cool weather last spring, and that meant fewer lightning flashes. At the same time, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota had larger organized storms, which resulted in a higher-than-average lightning activity compared to the 10-year average," according to Ryan Said, Lightning Research Scientist at Vaisala.
In the above video, Said tells our Chief Meteorologist Burton Fitzsimmons more about the phenomenon that can look mighty incredible yet be so dangerous.
The nation averaged 51 lightning strike fatalities annually and several hundred injuries each year during the last 20 years according to NOAA. The only phenomenon responsible for more storm-related deaths in the U.S. is flash flooding.
When thunder roars, head indoors. There's no safe place to be outdoors during a thunderstorm, especially here in Texas.