Lightning Flashes About 25 Million Times a Year in the U.S.

Lightning is far more common than most people would guess. The U.S. National Weather Service states that in the United States there are about 25 million lightning flashes every year, and adds that each of those 25 million flashes is a potential killer. The Weather Service calls lightning fascinating to watch but also extremely dangerous. Lightning fatalities have decreased over the past 30 years, yet lightning continues to be one of the top weather killers in the United States, and it injures many more people than it kills. The practical advice is blunt. If you hear thunder, even a distant rumble, you are already in danger of becoming a lightning victim. The same page gives a way to judge distance: count the seconds between the flash and the thunder, and divide by 5 to get the number of miles.