You’ll Be Shocked to See the New Lightning Capital of Missouri

Who doesn't love lightning puns? That's why I'll gladly share the shocking news that Missouri has a new lightning capital according to new data that measures the fire that comes from the sky.

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This new report comes from Vaisala X Weather. They measured more than 198 million lightning events that happened across America over the past year and calculated the number of strikes in each location to determine which city in each state is the lightning rod to rule them all.

My understanding based on the report they shared is they have very accurate sensors that have been calculating this data for the past decade. With all the numbers crunched, they named the lightning capital of Missouri.

So which city is the most lightning-prone in Missouri?

Congratulations to Fredericktown, Missouri, the new lightning capital of the Show Me State. They averaged the highest lightning density in Missouri with 194 strikes for every square kilometer. Truly electric data to be sure.

Overall, Missouri ranked as the state with the 15th highest lightning density in the United States which is actually down quite a bit from the previous year.

The report shows that Florida remains the state with the most lightning followed closely by Louisiana. Looking at you, Gulf Coast storms.

If you're interested in earth science stuff and/or lightning, check out the full Vaisala X Weather report for tons of shocking (really) data.