Lightning strikes are always a serious threat, no matter what season it is. For the last year, lightning strikes in the US have reached an 8-year-high, according to Vaisala Xweather.
Xweather operates the world’s definitive lightning-detection infrastructure, capable of recording 99% of thunderstorms worldwide and detecting over two billion lightning events.
In a recent report, Vaisala Xweather said that approximately 250 million lightning strikes occurred in 2025, a 20% increase from 2024.
The most active day in 2025 was April 5, when 157 severe storms, including 21 tornadoes in the Southeast, produced more than three million lightning events, according to Vaisala Xweather.
The state with the most lightning activity last year was Texas, with 47 million events. The state with the fewest lightning strikes was Rhode Island, with just 8,000 events.
Although Shady Grove, Oklahoma, holds the title of US lightning capital, with 1,160 recorded events, according to Vaisala Xweather, Texas and Florida have been at the top of the list over the past few years.
According to NASA, lightning is an electrical discharge in the atmosphere that can occur between clouds, the ground or in the air itself. Thunder occurs when lightning passes through the air, heating it quickly. This causes the air to expand rapidly and create the sound wave we hear as thunder.
Lightning can happen between two opposite charges within a thunderstorm cloud or between opposite charges in the cloud or on the ground, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
About 25 million cloud-to-ground lightning strikes occur in the US every year, according to the NWS. Over the last 30 years, the U.S. has averaged 51 lightning deaths per year.
“Most lightning victims are not struck during the worst of a thunderstorm, but rather before or after the storm reaches its greatest intensity,” a statement from the NWS reads.
Where to go during a thunderstorm
According to the NWS, the safest location during a thunderstorm is an enclosed structure with plumbing and electrical wiring. These include shopping centers, schools, office buildings and private residences.
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If lightning strikes a building, the plumbing and wiring will conduct the electricity and redirect it into the ground.
Since 2001, the NWS has dedicated a week to lightning safety awareness in June to highlight lightning as an under-recognized hazard.
