Lightning activity poses a significant danger throughout the year, regardless of the season. Over the past 12 months, the number of lightning strikes across the United States has hit its highest level in eight years, based on data from Vaisala Xweather.
Vaisala Xweather manages the most comprehensive lightning-detection network on the planet, which is able to capture 99% of all thunderstorms globally and record more than two billion lightning events.
According to a report recently from Vaisala Xweather, the United States recorded around 250 million lightning strikes in 2025, marking a 20% rise compared to the previous year in 2024. (RELATED: Multiple Storms Could Blast Cascade Mountains With Potentially 2-4 Feet Of Snow)
The peak lightning day of 2025 took place Apr. 5 when 157 severe storms — featuring 21 tornadoes across the Southeast — generated over three million lightning events, as reported by Vaisala Xweather.
Texas led the nation in lightning events for 2025, recording 47 million strikes. In contrast, Rhode Island experienced the lowest number among all states, with only 8,000 events.
US lightning strikes reach new eight-year high in 2025 https://t.co/RsQNd2D7Hh pic.twitter.com/CtPxwGf7HO
— New York Post (@nypost) January 7, 2026
While Shady Grove, Oklahoma claims the crown as the nation’s lightning capital with 1,160 strikes, Texas and Florida have dominated the rankings in recent years, according to Vaisala Xweather.
NASA describes lightning as an electrical discharge that takes place in the atmosphere, potentially between clouds, the ground or within the air. The sound of thunder is produced when lightning rapidly heats the surrounding air as it travels through it, causing the air to expand explosively and generate the acoustic wave we recognize as thunder.
The National Weather Service (NWS) states that lightning forms through two opposing electrical charges, which can happen inside a single thunderstorm cloud, between a cloud’s opposite charges or on the ground. (RELATED: Looming Storm Threat Could Potentially Unleash Snow, Hail, Rain To United States)
The NWS reports that the United States experiences roughly 25 million cloud-to-ground lightning strikes annually. In the past three decades, the country has recorded an average of about 51 fatalities from lightning each year.
“Most lightning victims are not struck during the worst of a thunderstorm, but rather before or after the storm reaches its greatest intensity,” reads a statement from the National Weather Service.