Venezuela tops world lightning conductor league Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo has wrested the world's "maximum lightning activity" crown from Africa's Congo Basin, according to electrifying data from the joint NASA and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). Using 16 years of detection data from the now-deceased TRMM satellite's …
I saw a program on TV at least several months ago which stated that Maracaibo has teh most lightning of any place in the world. Out of curiosity, I then started taking occasional peeks at that area on Blitzortung, and true enough, there generally was lightning in that area , most days. So I'm not sure how ths,s interesting as it is, counts as 'news'.
I was thinking along the same lines - interesting but not necessarily news. The Met Office seem to have been aware of this for over a year
http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2015/mar/11/venezuela-lightning-lake-maracaibo
"South America’s largest body of water, Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela, is the site of “the most frequent lightning in the world”, according to Graeme Anderson, an expert on the subject at the Met Office."
When I worked in South Africa we also had a massive "storm damage" (say lightning) issue
With the Highveld area being 1700M plus above sea level, Zeus often struck hard...
Many a modem was lost to lightning, even with all the surge protection devices we fitted including surge protection plug tops, that had beefy ceramic capacitors within them. (We fitted special plug sockets with protected plugs that had a special "half moon" earth pin to prevent kettles, heaters and the like from being plugged in to them)
Often I still hear of people who's homesteads get zapped by Zeus rendering all their everyday electronic devices (TVs, Digital Receivers, HiFis, desktop systems etc) useless..
Lightning can be a truly amazing spectacle but it sure as hell don't discriminate when it strikes nearby.. watch S.A. comedian Trevor Noah's "Death at a funeral" sketch (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXsZ5bydFT0)
My house is the sort with more antennas than an Air Traffic Control tower.
I don't really like lightning much. Every time it goes FLASH-BANG (about once a decade), it cost me at least $500. Lightning protection systems that actually work cost more. Can't win.
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