Tampa: Lightning Capital of the world

They don't call the Tampa Bay area the lightning capital of the world for nothing. This storm went through seemingly out of nowhere. The skies were blue and cloudy at 8pm. At 11pm, this started, and lasted until about 12:30. Now the power has come back on at 1am. I haven't seen lightning here with such frequency. It was all but non-stop flashing for that entire time.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Florida
• Tampa
• Lightning
• Storm

[ter450]

I live in Tampa-bay area, and love the lightning. Unfortunately, the "Lightning capital of the world" is more of a local claim to fame (and I have no idea where "Ocala" got that name). Tampa to Orlando has the most in US, as many as 50 strikes per square mile per year (about 20 per km²). Kifuka in Congo has, an average of 158 lightning strikes per square kilometre (approx. 0.4 square mile) a year. Almost 8 times as many strikes.

[NomadRip]

@ter450 Yeah, I should have known not to trust the locals here who call it that :-D

[armedturtle]

last night was RIDICULOUS

[NomadRip]

@armedturtle Yeah I thought of making another, but it would have looked the same :-)

[nickgators]

ocala is number 1 lighting capital but tampa is pretty close

[NomadRip]

I wasn't even in Tampa, I was in St. Pete. But it's easier to say Tampa. And nobody except people from Tampa would know where Ocala is, so I didn't say that.

[OptimusKind]

That's every day in the orlando area during summer.

[mud409]

You should try driving through one of these, it's nuts. I had to go through one a few months ago in CFL, and it was like driving through a rave. I should add that the strobe effect was at least 10x faster than this one too; to the point it was slightly stop motion. Pretty much everyone pulled over. Me? I just made the dubstep a little louder, and moved along.

[LionGoddess1]

looks like heat lightning.. it would roar like mad if it was lightning strike related

[NothingTypical2010]

That is freekie!