Almost 300 nights a year, a lightning storm rages in a small part of Venezuela. Known as Relampo del Catatumbo, the storm is located where the Catatumbo River flows into Lake Maracaibo. Warm air from the Caribbean meets the cold air from the mountains, creating the perfect conditions for lightning.
For 140 to 160 nights out of the year, for 10 hours at a time, the sky above the river is pierced by almost constant lightning, producing as many as 280 strikes per hour.
The area has been labelled as the most electric place on Earth and it even made it to the Guinness book.
In fact, the lightning, visible from 400 kilometers away, is so regular that it’s been used as a navigation aid by ships and is known among sailors as the “Maracaibo Beacon.”
For many years, it was unknown exactly why this area alone produce such regular lightning. One theory held that ionized methane gas rising from the Catatumbo bogs met with storm clouds coming down from the Andes, helping to create the perfect conditions for a lightning storm. Now, though, scientists attribute the lightning to a regular, low-lying air current coming from the Caribbean; they’ve set up an early warning system based on forecasts of when lightning storms will come. The highest concentration of lightning and strikes can be usually observed in October, and the lowest in January and February.
With a total of roughly 1.2 million lightning discharges per year, the Relampago del Catatumbo is thought to be the world’s greatest producer of ozone. As the lightning rips through the air, it produces nitrogen oxide, which is broken down by sunlight and converted into ozone. It is unclear, however, whether these molecules ever end up in the protective ozone layer high above the planet