Lightning Strikes the Earth About 100 Times Per Second
A global satellite view of Earth at night with hundreds of lightning flashes illuminating storm systems simultaneously across every continent
At any given moment, roughly 1,800 thunderstorms are occurring across the planet, producing about 8.6 million lightning strikes per day. That works out to approximately 100 strikes every second.
Why Itβs Interesting
Each bolt is five times hotter than the surface of the Sun and lasts less than a second. The sheer frequency means that in the time it took you to read this sentence, over 500 lightning bolts hit the Earth somewhere.
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