UK Lightning Map and Thunderstorm Detector | Live Tracker

We have our very own lightning detector and this captures a picture of lightning around the southwest.

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Lightning Tracker

This animated lightning map is updated every few minutes and reports strikes as they happen in the UK on a 3-hour cycle....

• At any point of time there are about 1800 thunderstorms.
• Every year, the Earth experiences an average of 25 million lightning strikes during some 100,000 thunderstorms. That’s more than a hundred lightning bolts per second.
• An average instance of lightning lasts about a quarter of a second and consists of 3-4 strikes.
• You can hear thunder from about 12 miles from the starting point.
• Lightning bolts travel at speeds of up to 60,000 miles per second.
• The average length of a single lightning bolt is 2-3 miles.
• A single lightning bolt travels through twisted paths in the air that can be as wide as one of your fingers or between six and ten miles.
• The temperature of a typical lightning bolt can reach 50,000 F degrees – that is 5 times greater than the temperature of the surface of the Sun.
• The energy contained in a single lightning strike can power a 100 Watt light bulb for 90 days.
• “Lightning never strikes twice” unfortunately is a myth. Lightning can strike the same location many times.
• Trees sometimes can take direct hits from lightning and not get burnt – the electricity passes over their wet surface and goes straight into the ground.
• Glass forms when lightning strikes into sandy soil. After a storm you can find strips of glass in the sand.
• If you have wet clothes on, lightning will do you less harm.
• The irrational fear of lightning is known as keraunophobia. The fear of thunder is termed brontophobia.
• There are from 100 to 1000 instances of ball lightning at the same time on Earth, but the chance you’ll see at least one in your lifetime is just 0.01%.