AUSTIN (KXAN) — The numbers are in… and to no surprise, Texas had a very active lightning year in 2022. But how did we stack up compared to the other states?
Lightning capital by count
According to a new report by Vaisala, Texas came in on top for the most lightning count of 2022 with over 27 million cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground bolts recorded. Florida followed with a count of over 18 million, with Louisiana (11.5 million), Oklahoma (11.3 million) and Mississippi (9.9 million) rounding out the top five.
2022 lightning count rankings by state
Lightning capital by density
Obviously, the mere size of Texas puts the state at an advantage for seeing a lot of lightning… but when analyzing the weather phenomena by density, the state came in at #10 with 39.81 events per square kilometer. Who ranked first? Florida with 109.8 events per square kilometer.
2022 lightning density rankings by state
State and national lightning capitals
Looking a bit deeper, when analyzing lightning events by state, Wesley Grove, Texas (40 miles east of College Station) was the hot spot for lightning in Texas last year with 262 events per square kilometer.
On a national level, Four Corners, Florida came as as the U.S. lightning capital of 2022 with 474 lightning events per square kilometer.
IN-DEPTH: In 2021, Flatonia, Texas earned the title as the nation’s lightning capital. Read more about 2021’s rankings here.
2022 lightning capitals
Other 2022 lightning facts
May 21st 2022 — the most active day of lightning with a count of 3.3 million events
More than twice as much lightning occurred between JUN-AUG compared to MAR-MAY
The Hunga Volcano eruption in Tonga produced the highest concentration of lightning ever recorded — 25,000+ lightning events in 5 minutes, nearly 400,000+ in 6 hours
To read Vaisala’s full 2022 Annual Lightning Report, click here.
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