Severe Weather Maps
Lightning Strikes
Did you know?
Learn about Lightning Strikes
The National Lightning map shows where cloud-to-ground lightning strikes have occurred in the last hour. Lightning is an atmospheric discharge of electricity, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms. In the atmospheric electrical discharge, a leader of a bolt of lightning can travel at speeds of 60,000 m/s, and can reach temperatures approaching 30,000°C (54,000°F), hot enough to fuse soil or sand into glass channels. There are over 16 million lightning storms every year.

