Lightning in Florida

ENSO Map

Source: Vaisala’s National Lightning Detection Network

Florida is the lightning capital of the United States and Florida experiences nearly 100 days a year with a thunderstorm. Because most of Florida is surrounded by the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean, the air is warm and moist. These are ingredients for the formation of cumulonimbus clouds, the clouds that identify thunderstorms.

FUN FACT: Florida averages 1.4 million cloud-to-ground lightning strikes each year.