How Much Lightning Actually Strikes the United States?

Abstract

Abstract The number of cloud-to-ground (CG) flashes over the contiguous United States (CONUS) has been estimated to be from as small as 25 million per year to as many as 40 million. In addition, many CG flashes contact the ground in more than one place. To clarify these values, recent data from the National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) have been examined since the network is performing well enough to make precise updates to the number of CG flashes and their associated ground contact points. The average number of CG flashes is calculated to be about 23.4 million per year over the CONUS, and the average number of ground contact points is calculated as 36.8 million per year. Knowledge of these two parameters is critical to lightning protection standards, as well as better understanding of the effects of lightning on forest fire initiation, geophysical interactions, human safety, and applications that benefit from knowing that a single flash may transfer charge to the ground in multiple, widely spaced locations. Sensitivity tests to assess the effects of misclassification of CG and in-cloud (IC) lightning are also made to place bounds on these estimates, and the likely uncertainty is a few percent.