These US cities are ‘lightning capitals,’ report says

See how lightning strikes are distributed around the U.S.

by Rebecca Barry and Alix Martichoux | Jan. 09, 2023

Story at a glance

Vaisala released their annual report on lightning strikes around the U.S.

Four Corners, Florida, outside Orlando, was found to have the highest number of strikes across the country, at 474 per square kilometer in 2022.

The next closest areas in terms of lightning density were Greensburg, Louisiana, and Ariel, Mississippi.

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Four Corners, Florida, an area just a few miles to the south and west of Orlando, was found to have the highest lightning strike density of anywhere in the entire U.S. this year, according to Vaisala’s annual report on the weather phenomenon.

The analysis found that Four Corners had a lightning density of 474 lightning strikes per square kilometer in 2022. The closest areas to Four Corners in terms of lightning density were Greensburg, Louisiana, and Ariel, Mississippi.

The report named a lightning capital for each U.S. state – but what that means varies significantly by state. For example, while Lime Village saw the highest concentration of lightning strikes in Alaska (3 per square kilometer), it comes nowhere near Mulhall, Oklahoma, where there were 302 strikes per square kilometer in 2022.

See each state’s lightning capital below, according to Vaisala’s report:

State	Lightning capital	Strikes per square km.
Alabama	Mobile	225
Alaska	NE of Lime Village	3
Arizona	Paradise	110
Arkansas	Amy	229
California	Desert Center	52
Colorado	Bethune	58
Connecticut	Windsor	38
Delaware	Seaford	66
Florida	Four Corners	474
Georgia	Homeland	316
Hawaii	Hana	10
Idaho	Clayton	31
Illinois	Divernon Township	233
Indiana	Mt. Vernon	124
Iowa	Arthur	86
Kansas	Howard	161
Kentucky	Blackford	260
Louisiana	Greensburg	387
Maine	Shapleigh	16
Maryland	East Riverdale	167
Massachusetts	Phillipston	22
Michigan	Rosebush	113
Minnesota	Fort Ripley	115
Mississippi	Ariel	376
Missouri	Frederickstown	194
Montana	Forsyth	100
Nebraska	Broken Bow	102
Nevada	Searchlight	54
New Hampshire	Waterville Valley	20
New Jersey	Wayne/Paterson	39
New Mexico	Jal	97
New York	Seneca Knolls	63
North Carolina	Kannapolis	111
North Dakota	Oberon	118
Ohio	Willow Wood	153
Oklahoma	Mulhall	302
Oregon	Flora	24
Pennsylvania	Quarryville	76
Rhode Island	Bristol	18
South Carolina	St. George	193
South Dakota	Midland	141
Tennessee	Camden	147
Texas	Wesley Grove	262
Utah	Modena	43
Vermont	Danby	17
Virginia	Patrick Springs	169
Washington	Turk	29
West Virginia	Mount Olive	133
Wisconsin	Farmington	111
Wyoming	Newcastle	65

The state of Florida ranks highest for lightning density, with an average of 109.84 lightning strikes per square kilometer last year. The state of Texas ranks highest for the total number of lightning strikes, with 27,696,688 strikes last year.

The report also highlighted the unusually high levels of lightning within the eye of Hurricane Ian. The storm most likely had the highest number of strikes of any Atlantic system. Pacific systems far outpace Atlantic storms in the number of lightning strikes.

Hurricane Ian’s unusually high number of lightning strikes

Lightning within the eyewall of a hurricane is a measure of the storm’s intensity. A threshold for a strong storm is called Enveloped Eyewall Lightning (EEL) and it occurs when the lightning has been throughout the eyewall for more than six hours.

Vaisala studies lightning strikes using the U.S. National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) and the Vaisala Global Lightning Dataset (GLD360), which they say detect more than 2 billion “lightning events” every year.