JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A historic shift took place last year with regard to lightning activity.
Atmospheric and Environmental Research (AEM) has a ground-based lightning detection network (Earth Networks Total Lightning Network), and that’s where the data from this report comes from.
AEM released their 2025 U.S lightning report which revealed that Oklahoma has surpassed Florida to become the nation’s lighting concentration capital of the United States.
Before we dive deeper into the findings, let’s first look at what lightning is and how it develops.
Lightning is a large spark of electricity in the atmosphere between the atmosphere and the ground. Air acts as an insulator in the initial stage of development between the positive and negative charges in the cloud.
When the difference in charges becomes too great, the insulating capacity of the air breaks down, and there is a rapid discharge of electricity. This is what we know as lightning.
You can calculate how far away a strike of lightning is! The sound of thunder travels around 1 mile every five seconds. If you calculate the amount of time between the lightning and the sound of thunder and divide it by 5, you get the number of miles away from you.
When looking at the lightning density across the country over a span of 5 years or so, several states are hot spots, with Florida at or near the top of the list.
The latest AEM report found that Oklahoma’s rise to the top of the lightning rankings represents a significant shift compared to past years. The Great Plains is now emerging as an increasingly active region for high-impact storms.
The report also shows a correlation between peak lightning days and billion-dollar disasters.
One thing to note is that the change in ranking is likely due to the relatively drier year here in Florida and a more active thunderstorm pattern in Oklahoma.