The Vaisala Xweather Annual Lightning Report Details Lightening Activity Extremes for 2022

The Vaisala Xweather Annual Lightning Report Details Lightening Activity Extremes for 2022

Vaisala Xweather — a worldwide leader in weather, environmental, and industrial measurements, recently assessed significant, or lack thereof, lighting incidents in the world in 2022:

“The 2022 Annual Lightning Report leverages intelligence from the longest continuously operating and most scientifically validated lightning detection network in the world, Vaisala’s U.S. National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN), and the most comprehensive global lightning detection network, Vaisala’s Global Lightning Dataset GLD360.

Supported by more than three decades of unparalleled data history, detection accuracy, and analytical capabilities, the 2022 report is based on the most comprehensive source of global and local lightning data in the world.”

Five major or minor lightening events were recorded in 2022.

A lack of thunderstorms dried up North America’s largest river:

Exceptional drought, and 11% decrease in lightning over the basin, lowered the river’s water levels not seen in decades. The Mississippi River basin obtains 60% of its yearly rainfall from thunderstorms.

Record-breaking volcanic lightning from the Hunga Volcano in the Pacific Ocean:

600,000 lightning events emanated from the eruption of the Hunga Volcano in the Pacific Ocean between December 19, 2021, and January 16, 2022.

Four Corners, Florida had the highest density of lightning of any community in the country:

The 2022 Lightning Capital of the United States, two miles west of Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge, Four Corners saw 1,229 lightning events per square mile in 2022.

Wind turbines triggered lightning during a record-breaking lake-effect snowstorm near Buffalo, New York:

In November, a snowstorm over the Eastern Great Lakes brought up to 80 inches of snow and plentiful lightning. A wind farm near Buffalo, New York, saw more lightning in 28 hours than in the first 10 months of 2022, and more than 1,100 lightning events in just three and a half days occurred near wind turbines close to the Great Lakes. Wind turbines are known to produce lightning when winter storms transpire.

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Texas remains the United States lightning count leader:

The Lone Star State was determined to be the number one state for lightning with 27,696,688 total lightning events in 2022.