Over 2 Billion Lightning Strikes in 2023

The amount of lightning strikes to hit the Globe in 2023 was 2,102,170,206 ... over 2 BILLION lightning strikes for an average of 67 strikes per second! The U.S. alone saw roughly 11% of those lightning strikes, with over 240 million strikes captured in the U.S. alone. The report, developed by weather company Vaisala, counts both in-cloud lightning strikes and cloud-to-ground lightning strikes. Lightning is measured by Vaisala's global sensing network.

Related - What Causes Lightning

The most lightning-dense states, meaning the most strikes per area, were Florida and Mississippi. However, the state that saw the most individual strikes of lightning was Texas with over 42M strikes of lightning. Florida had 19M strikes of lightning but given how Florida is smaller in area compared to Texas, Florida is a more lightning-dense state.

The top 5 lightning-prone U.S. cities are all in Florida, with Miami-Fort Lauderdale topping the list. In 2022, the most lightning prone spot was Orlando, which sits at #4 this year. Other cities with notable amounts of lightning in 2023 include New Orleans, Houston and Baton Rouge, coming in at #6, 7 and 8, respectively. Lightning is "seasonal" and peaks with summer thunderstorm activity. This year, our most active lightning days in the U.S. were between June 14-21.