While Florida is considered the nation’s “Lightning Capital,” there are certain areas that are more notorious than others in the state.
According to Vaisala, the Sunshine State had greater “lightning density” — meaning the number of lightning events in a given area — than any other state in 2023, with 112 events per square kilometer.
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Overall, the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro was considered the most lightning-prone area in the country, with around 35.1 lightning strokes per square kilometer.
In fact, Florida made the top five spots on the ranking, with Palm Bay-Melbourne, Cape Coral, Orlando and Jacksonville making the list.
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Additionally, Tampa-St. Petersburg and Bradenton-Sarasota-Venice were also considered among the top 20.
Last year, the most lightning-prone area was Four Corners, near Walt Disney World in Central Florida. It managed to see 1,229 lightning events per square mile in 2022, Vaisala reported.
The full list for 2023 is as follows:
| Rank | Area | State | Lightning Strokes per Square Kilometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Miami-Fort Lauderdale | FL | 35.1 |
| 2 | Palm Bay-Melbourne | FL | 26.6 |
| 3 | Cape Coral | FL | 22.7 |
| 4 | Orlando | FL | 21.5 |
| 5 | Jacksonville | FL | 18.8 |
| 6 | New Orleans | LA | 15.9 |
| 7 | Houston | TX | 15.9 |
| 8 | Baton Rouge | LA | 15.8 |
| 9 | Memphis | TN-MS-AR | 15.0 |
| 10 | Birmingham | AL | 13.4 |
| 11 | Tampa-St. Petersburg | FL | 12.4 |
| 12 | Bradenton-Sarasota-Venice | FL | 10.9 |
| 13 | Charleston | SC | 10.7 |
| 14 | San Antonio | TX | 9.3 |
| 15 | Tulsa | OK | 9.3 |
| 16 | Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington | TX | 8.9 |
| 17 | McKinney-Frisco | TX | 8.7 |
| 18 | McAllen | TX | 8.7 |
| 19 | Nashville-Davidson | TN | 8.4 |
| 20 | Atlanta | GA | 8.3 |
Lightning strikes can travel up to 10 miles. Just because you don’t see lightning, doesn’t mean you are safe. So even if you don’t consider yourself to be in a lightning risk area, when thunder roars, go indoors.
“More people are killed by the approaching storm and the leaving storm than at the height of the storm. This is because many people take the risk of staying with what they are doing as the storm approaches,” News 6 Chief Meteorologist Tom Sorrells says. “Most everyone knows to stay inside during the rough part of the storm, but they are slow to take action as the storm approaches, and then too quick to go back outside when they think the storm is over. "
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