The lightning strikes during yesterday’s storm were incredible; we counted them all

Yesterday there was a widespread series of severe thunderstorms. A network of instruments was actually able to count all the lightning strikes over Michigan.

Fortunately, none of us were caught in the strong gusts of wind, but many of you mentioned to me the many lightning strikes. It was a very electrifying storm.

A company called Vaisala has a nationwide network of lightning detection sensors that count lightning strikes and lightning pulses. They can even tell us if a particular bolt hit the ground or just flew through the air from cloud to cloud. Although it’s not as important compared to a ground-based bolt, Vaisala even tells us if it was a positive or negative electrical charge.

Vaisala’s National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) is a private network of lightning sensors that detect and report lightning in real time with a location accuracy of just over 300 feet.

So here it is. On Tuesday morning between 2 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., there were an incredible 116,000 lightning strikes and pulses across Lower Michigan. The map below shows all of the lightning strikes from cloud to ground and cloud to cloud.

Hans Loewenheath of Vaisala Xweather says: “Within a bounding box roughly covering the Michigan ‘glove’, Vaisala Xweather detected 105,455 cloud pulses and 10,663 cloud-to-ground flashes, all between about 2 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 25, 2024. So a total of more than 116,000 lightning events.”

Vaisala also counts all lightning strikes in a year. Last year, Michigan had 2,528,440 lightning strikes and impulses. Hans did the math for us and found that the eight-hour thunderstorm period on Tuesday alone accounted for almost five percent of Michigan’s annual lightning activity.

An interesting and very important fact: lightning changes the form of nitrogen in the air and makes the nitrogen usable by plants. Yes, lightning is the best fertilizer, better than anything fertilizer factories can produce.

Mother Nature has truly given us the most beautiful celestial spectacle we can have. I hope you were able to watch it safely. Now watch your garden grow.