When you think of lightning and thunder one of the first things that may come to mind are our Florida summertime thunderstorms, but would you think of the North Pole?
A new study from Vaisala, which monitors lightning worldwide, revealed lightning drastically increased last year in the Arctic. Last year, there were 7,287 lightning strokes north of 80 degrees latitude. That's about twice as many as have been seen in the last nine years.
The World Meteorological Organization has previously declared lightning an Essential Climate Variable. That's because meteorologists say understanding its locations and frequency helps us better understand our changing climate.
Scientists have been using Arctic lightning as a climate change indicator. Up there, temperatures have been warming three times faster than at lower latitudes.
Warm, moist air is contributing to the more frequent lightning strokes. Storms have been developing over Siberia and pushing over the Arctic Ocean – sending warm air north.
Those air masses create lift in the atmosphere when they collide with the colder Arctic air. That lift makes thunderstorms. Because the air is normally so cold there, thunderstorms are rare. But in August of 2019, the northernmost lightning strike ever recorded occurred just over 32 miles form the North Pole!
Using the Vaisala satellite based lighting counts, scientists will be able to monitor the warming in the very remote region, helping us understand how warming due to greenhouse gases is affecting our climate.
The latest lightning report illustrates how lightning strokes have been rising in the United States, too. More than 194 million strokes occurred last year. Some 24 million more than was observed in 2020.
Florida has the highest density of lightning strokes with 223 lightning events per square mile. However, Texas beat us for the most lightning with over 42 million strokes, including cloud-to-cloud lightning.