NEED TO KNOW<\/p>\n
Last year, Florida was dethroned as the lightning strike capital of the United States, according to a new report<\/p>\n
\u201cThe shift signals a broader surge in lightning activity across the Great Plains,\u201d environmental consulting firm AEM said in a statement<\/p>\n
There are a number of reasons for the shift, including the fact that Florida had a drier than average year<\/p>\n
There is a new lightning capital in the United States.<\/p>\n
Oklahoma had the highest concentration of lightning strikes last year at 73 flashes per square mile, according to the 2025 lightning report from environmental consulting firm AEM<\/a>, which used data collected from 1,8000 censors across the country.<\/p>\n Florida previously held the title for highest concentration of lightning strikes in the U.S.<\/p>\n \u201cThe shift signals a broader surge in lightning activity across the Great Plains,\u201d AEM said in a statement.<\/p>\n Elizabeth DiGangi, a lightning scientist, told USA Today<\/a> that it’s too early to say “whether this is part of a larger trend,” noting that above-average rainfall and plenty of severe weather in Oklahoma last year meant “there were simply more thunderstorms producing more flashes.”<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Florida experienced a drier than usual year. <\/p>\n Kay County, located in northern Oklahoma, was the \u201cmost lightning-dense county\u201d of 2025 at 123.4 flashes per square mile, according to AEM’s report \u2014 and there were a total of 88.4 million lightning strikes across the U.S., a 9.8% increase from 2024.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Texas saw the \u201cbiggest surge of lightning\u201d in 2025 at 1.3 million flashes above average, also taking the \u201ctop spot in storm intensity\u201d for the year.<\/p>\n The Lone Star State had \u201ctwice as many dangerous thunderstorms as the next highest state\u201d in 2025 with 9,103 Dangerous Thunderstorm Alerts, according to the report. That topped its number from the previous year of 6,893.<\/p>\n As for the \u201cmost lightning intense day\u201d of 2025? That was June 15, when 929,016 flashes were recorded across the U.S.<\/p>\n Additionally, AEM said \u201clightning peaked on days that coincided with billion-dollar disasters.”<\/p>\n