So for the residents of one of the Venezuelan regions, nature has saved almost nightly incessant light-music: in a place where the Catatumbo River flows into Lake Maracaibo, lightning hits 1.2-1.6 million times a year. An atmospheric event that occurs where the Catatumbo River enters the Lake Maracaibo became known as Catatumbo lightning. And the spectacular phenomenon may even be responsible for Venezuela's independence. The average age of a person struck by lightning is 37 years. You can review and change the way we collect information below. Ten minutes of Catatumbo Lightning could illuminate all of South America. From polar vortexes to hurricanes that strikeNew York City in autumn to droughts that never seem to end, no one in the worldtruly seems to know what's happening with the weather. "Catatumbo lightning" in Venezuela is produced by thunderstorm complexes (MCSs) that form due to 'diurnal' (meaning on a day/night cycle) wind patterns produced as a result of the local topography and maritime factors. This phenomenon commences one hour after dawn and lasts for 10 hours. In this video, I will explain what this incredible natural phenomenon is and why it occurs so of. Even lightning inside the highest reaches of a thunderstorm will still be audible to an observer who is within a few miles of the storm base. If you were to travel to Venezuela to observe Catatumbo lightning, you wouldn't see a new, rare type of thunderstorm or lightning. A cheeky customer desperate for a refund on a flight has been applauded for their exceptional trolling of an Australian airline. I believe the photo below is a time lapse image. These convergence zones form nightly and in generally the same location in the Lago de Maracaibo basin, creating the thunderstorms that produce the famed Catatumbo lightning. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. August 2, 2011 -- A mysterious symphony of rapid-fire lightning bolts used to create the greatest light show on Earth over the Catatumbo River in Venezuela -- until . Lightning most often strikes people who engage in outdoor recreational activities or work outside. "Catatumbo lightning" refers to continuous (high frequency) lightning from a near-daily thunderstorm complex that forms in the Lago de Maracaibo/Catatumbo River region in northern Venezuela, South America. But as nature constantly proves, that is untrue. From 2006 through 2021, leisure activities such as fishing, boating, playing sports, and relaxing at the beach accounted for almost two-thirds of lightning deaths. Two years ago, Venezuela entered the Guinness Book of World Records for the most lightning strikes per hour, bumping the Congolese town of Kifuka out of the top spot. Open in . Since 2006, only five states (Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Washington) and the U.S. Virgin Islands have reported no lightning deaths. Unfortunately, with the high frequency of lightning also comes a high frequency of lightning accidents. lightning. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance. Ultimate Facts. National Weather Service: How Dangerous is Lightning? MULTIMEDIA LINK: View photos and video of a nocturnal MCS in Illinois, USA. For 140 to 160 nights out of the year, for 10 hours at a time, the sky above the river is pierced by almost constant lightning, producing as many as 280 strokes per hour. What is Catatumbo Lightning? Visitors can join guided night tours to witness the spectacle of Catatumbos so-called everlasting storm and explore the tropical savannas nearby. When these winds collide with the cool air coming down the Andes mountains, they are forced up until they condense into thunderclouds. Florida is considered the lightning capital of the country, with more than 2,000 lightning injuries over the past 50 years. View more photos and video. MYTH 2: "Catatumbo lightning is caused/colored by methane from swamps": Methane from bogs and swamps is often cited as a cause and/or a contributing factor for both the Catatumbo thunderstorms and the lightning itself. MetMatters explains the different forms that water takes when falling from the sky. It originates from a mass of storm clouds at a . The thwarted invasion was enshrined in the 16th epic poem La Dragontea. However, paradoxically, the first thing that should be known is about another saying that is false, the one that says lightning doesn't strike the same place twice. Thunder is rarely audible to an observer at distances of more than 15 miles away from the lightning. And the spectacular phenomenon may even be responsible for Venezuelas independence. The LLJ consists of a narrow corridor of winds near the surface that flows generally northward. Although lightning affects all regions in the United States, the Southeastern states are most at risk. According to NASA, lightning strikes the roughly 100-square-mile area about 28 times a minute over the course of nine hours. Fig. About 260 days a year, no-rain lightning storms light up the sky all night long - thirty flashes a minute for up to nine hours, to be exact. He watches its mile-high dance above the mouth of Venezuela's Catatumbo River, seventy miles across the Caribbean Sea from his shack on the island of Curaao. Here, the night sky is regularly illuminated for nine hours at a time, with lightning striking the sky at the rate of about 28 strikes per minute. Catatumbo means "House of Thunder" in the language of the Bari people. A lot of the (lightning) hot spots are tied to features in the terrain slopes of mountain ranges, curved coastlines, combinations of those, Dr Daniel Cecil from the Global Hydrology and Climate Centres lightning team told the BBC. This is also a myth, as the Catatumbo storms are often observed at great distances. Catatumbo Lightning ADDPMP560 Catatumbo lightning is an atmospheric phenomenon that occurs over the mouth of the Catatumbo River where it empties into Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. According to Catatumbo Camp, a lightning tourism company near the lake, nearly three people die every year in the lightning capital of the world. 260 storm days a year are experienced in the region, generating almost 1.2 million lightning strikes per year. Know how the COVID-19 pandemic can affect disaster preparedness and recovery, and what you can do to keep yourself and others safe. Having irregularities like that in the terrain can help generate wind patterns and heating or cooling patterns that would boost the likelihood of thunderstorms.. It was the 26-year mystery that baffled experts, but now divers have uncovered an answer to a question surrounding the site of the famous shipwreck. About 40 million lightning strikes hit the ground in the United States each year. . The only reason that Catatumbo storms are notable is because they consistently form in the same place night after night. Over the basin in Venezuela where the Catatumbo River empties into the Lake Maracaibo, a natural phenomenon of spectacular lightning occurs. The Catatumbo Lightning strikes 9 hours a day, 300 days a year, at the mouth of the Catatumbo River in Venezuela, usually occurring at exactly the same time and place each night. Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website. We've updated our Privacy Policy, which will go in to effect on September 1, 2022. When the LLJ encounters a frontal boundary, this unstable air is forced upward - often triggering strong, large thunderstorm complexes (MCSs) that last through the nighttime hours. Interest in Catatumbo lightning has been increasing in recent years, and the following myths are often repeated in news articles and documentaries: MYTH 1: "Catatumbo lightning is a special or rare type of lightning": There is no evidence to suggest that the Catatumbo thunderstorms and/or the lightning they produce are unique in any natural sense. Rather, during the first four months of 2010, lightning activity ceasedcompletely, possibly due to drought that overtook the region. In northwest Venezuela, at the place where Lake Maracaibo meets the Catatumbo River, lightning occurs, on average, twenty-eight times per minute for up to nine hours each day after dusk, for around 300 days a year, accompanied by a storm. Lightning strikes over Lake Maracaibo in the village of Ologa, in Zulia state, Venezuela, on September 6, 2021. There's even a name for it Catatumbo lightning. There is an area in Venezuela where lightning strikes 280 to 3,600 times an hour, 300 nights per year. The odds of being struck multiple times is even less, with the record being seven times in one lifetime. Scientists believe the storm, which occurs approximately three miles above the surface of the water, is caused by a mix of cold and warm air currents that occurs exactly where the lightning forms. The Spanish forces were then defeated by Venezuelan independence hero Simon Bolivars fleet in the crucial, final battle of the Spanish American wars of independence. There are 250 lightning strikes per sq. Even though previously the mountain village of Kifuka in the Democratic Republic of Congo in Central Africa was know to be the most electric place on Earth, with 158 lightning flashes per square kilometer each year, the Catatumbo lightning has surpassed this figure with . You'll need to keep this in mind when planning your trip to see Venezuela's eternal (or maybe not so eternal) thunderstorm. Catatumbo lightning at night. Answer: Thunder and lightning are produced primarily in the summer months, when the atmosphere is unstable. THEY say that lightning never strikes the same place twice. If you want to see Catatumbo Lightning with your own eyes, your best option is to go with a guided tour, so that you can pair the spectacle of the lightning with the opportunity to see river dolphins, colorful birds, butterflies and howler monkeys, as well as to explore the authentic Andean villages of La Azulita and Jaj, whose magic is more enduring than the so-called "never-ending lightning." At this exact place, where the river enters South America's biggest lake, the lightning storm lights up the sky without stopping for nearly 10 hours per night, totaling 260 nights in just one year. Get our travel tips Delivered to your inbox, TripSavvy uses only high-quality, trusted sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. So what makes Catatumbo Lightning consistent? km every single year. 3: Below: A thunderstorm with lightning in Missouri, viewed from 70 miles away in Illinois. Death and Sensuality. For those people living in a little village called Catatumbo in Venezuela, they can add lightning to that. Quick Facts From 2006 through 2021, there were 444 lightning strike deaths in the United States. If thunder is inaudible, it is due to the observer being too far away to hear it. Thats about 28 lighting strikes every minute enough energy to power 100 million light bulbs. Kirsty McCabe takes a closer look through the gloom. CDC twenty four seven. Distant lightning observed anywhere on earth will tend to have an orange/yellow/brown cast due to atmospheric particulates, much in the same way that the setting sun is affected. When they are at their most intense the flashes of lighting can be seen from about 400km away, which is why it has historically been used as a handy navigation aid for sailors. The only apparent unique characteristic of this phemonemon is that the storms form and persist in the same place night after night. Known as Relmpago del Catatumbo, the storm is located where. Nearly every day, there are hundreds of lightning strikes around Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo. The lightning displays last up to 9 hours, beginning . Simon Brown, Services Director at the Met Office, explains how meteorologists forecast and communicated the extreme events. Customer trolls airline after flight change, Divers unearth 26-year-old Titanic mystery. Both learned about life at sea, contributed to the daily duties onboard, educated the crew and students onboard in meteorological topics, participated and led weather observations, and discovered many of the intricacies of sailing on a tall ship! Fig. THIS spot is struck by more lightning than anywhere else in the world, creating spectacular electric storms. We can't keep all that lighting in a bottle, so here are 10. When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. A passenger was left stunned and confused after taking an innocent photo on board a plane, that resulted in him being barred from disembarking. These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. There have been campaigns to have the region listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The highest concentration of lightning on earth can be found where Lake Maracaibo meets the Catatumbo River. Distant lightning appears orange due to atmospheric particulates, in the same way the setting sun produces an orange cast. Orange and red lightning above Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela produce a spectacular phenomenon that is visible for more than 500 km. Males are four times more likely than females to be struck by lightning. Known as the "Relmpago del Catatumbo," (relmpago means lightning in Spanish) this lightning storm has been raging, on and off, for as long as people . Yes, that is quite the show. 1. Lake Maracaibo tops out at an astonishing 233 lightning flashes per square kilometer per year, making it the absolute lightning hot spot of the world. When Kirsty McCabe first presented the weather she was told not to use the word precipitation on air. We take your privacy seriously. Catatumbo. Indeed, the reliability of the storms means that they have historically been used as a maritime navigational aid. how does catatumbo lightning form? 2019 Majestic Skies Calendar - http://lightningdude.comThe Lightning Camp in the Heart of Venezuela's Maracaibo Lake is situated just few kilometers South of. Lake Maracaibo basin is surrounded by mountains that trap warm trade winds coming off the Caribbean. El Catatumbo, Venezuela The most famous lightning hotspot of the world, the thunderstorms at Lake. It was apparently too technical. Beyond the dialogue Catatumbo Lightning has generated within the scientific community, it's been mentioned in literature as far back as the late 16th century, when Spanish poet Lope de Vega used it as the backdrop for his seminal war epic,"La Dragontea.". Long-lived, highly electrified thunderstorm complexes (called an MCS: Mesoscale Convective System) are common at night in many parts of the world, particularly in the Plains and Midwest regions of the United States during spring and summer. A video of the lightning can be viewed here:www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyWkLsdJjPI. Scientists think that the phenomenon at Catatumbo, named after a river that runs into a lake, is normal lightning that just happens to occur far more than anywhere else, due to local topography and wind patterns. In this area, the atmospheric conditions are just right so that the storm clouds high in the atmosphere produce intense lightning storms over half the nights every year. 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