Hacker News Reader

Hacker News

Comment by thekevan | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

thekevan

Europe: 1489 strikes

Oceania: 28 strikes

Asia: 0 strikes

South America: 913 strikes

North America: 15,826 strikes!!

View on HN

It's not the reality, it's just reflecting the coverage.

Actually, the coverage in Europe is many many times better than the coverage in the US. The US actually gets that many more lightning strikes then Europe.

http://www.lightningmaps.org/extra/coverage?lang=en

As mentioned by mnw, coverage is actually pretty sparse in North America (at least relative to Europe, presumably because it's a German project?). The continent simply has environments that are ideal for severe thunderstorms. I imagine the other continents are grossly underrepresented.

True, of course, but it's also worth remarking that there are huge spatial differences in lightning frequency due to the specific mechanisms causing thunderstorms.

I live in the U.S., and you rarely see t-storms on the Pacific coast here because the nearby Pacific Ocean is cool (due, in turn, to cool water brought down by the clockwise-turning North Pacific Gyre). But t-storms are very common in the Midwest and South due to the presence of warm, moist air there.

We get plenty of thunder here in the North East as well, even the occasional instance of thunder snow. Lightning is much more common in a majority of the US, excepting much of the lower west coast and southwest.

   > North America: 15,826 strikes!!

The funny part is that they happen mostly in the midwest and that area is sometimes called the 'bible belt' (for its strong evangelical christian population) and lightning strikes are a metaphorical means of punishment by God (as in "May lightning strike me down if I'm lying ...")

That irony aside, I am wondering about that South America number, it seems like at equidistant latitudes there are similar lightning environments on both sides of the equator and yet a nearly 16x reduction in number of strikes? What is up with that?

> The funny part is that they happen mostly in the midwest and that area is sometimes called the 'bible belt'

Funny idea, but for the record, there is almost no overlap between the Midwest and the Bible Belt (which is essentially the South):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwestern_United_States

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_Belt

Your right of course. On the map the of lightning strikes they are (or at least were when I looked at it) happening in the Bible Belt according to the Wikipedia link. Along the top of Texas and up through Missouri. My error was in conflating the name of the regions.

I apologize to any folks who live in the region known as the midwest who were offended.

Are you confusing "Bible Belt" with "Tornado Alley"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tornado_alley

Where I live in West Central Florida we get about 50 strikes per square mile per year, 1.5 million per year for the state. Lightning is common here during the rainy season.

Florida and North Carolina are #1 and #2 for number of lightning strikes in the US. -- grew up in FL, now live in NC.

Cary resident here. In NC it's pretty much guaranteed that 90% of the days between mid-May and end-July will have a 30-40% chance of thunderstorms in the late afternoon to early evening. I like it, but it can make planning outdoor activities a bit tricky.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com