A total of de 2.409.799.364 lightning strikes were recorded worldwide in 2021. This number includes cloud-to-cloud lightning and cloud-to-ground discharges.
The country with the most lightning strikes was Brazil, with 225,607,575 strikes, while the country with the highest lightning density was Singapore, with 163.08 strikes per Km2.
TOP 5 USA STATES WITH THE MOST LIGHTNING DISCHARGES (CLOUD TO GROUND AND CLOUD TO CLOUD)
Texas 41.914.516
Florida 14.645.013
Louisiana 11.071.444
Oklahoma 9.940.752
Kansas 8.855.790
TOP 5 USA STATES WITH THE HIGHEST DENSITY OF LIGHTNING PER KM2
Florida 85,99
Louisiana 81,82
Texas 60,25
Mississippi 55,79
Oklahoma 54,91
In total, 194 million lightning strikes, during the whole of 2021, in the USA: 24 million more than in 2020.
SOURCE: www.weather.gov
DATA IN SPAIN
Currently, it is the second year with the most lightning strikes in Spain in the last decade, only behind 2018 and 2015.
In Spain, there were 247 storm days in 2021.
436.930 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes detected in 2021.
1 September – A record number of lightning strikes detected – 52.974
AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITIES WITH MOST LIGHTNING STRIKES
La Rioja
Comunidad Valenciana
Catalonia
PROVINCES MOST AFFECTED BY LIGHTNING STRIKES
Castellón
Tarragona
La Rioja
SOURCE: www.weather.gov
In 2021, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed that the record for the duration of a lightning strike had been broken: 17.1 seconds over northern Argentina and Uruguay in 2020. It also reported a new record for the length of an individual lightning strike: 800 kilometres across three US states; also in 2020.
If you would like to know more about Aplicaciones Tecnológicas S.A.’s lightning protection products and services, you can contact us through this link.
If you wish, you can also attend any of our free online training courses on lightning protection on our webinars page.