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For many years, Florida has been described as the lighting capital of the United States. Its unique location, surrounded by warm water, provides everything needed for thunderstorms to form – especially during the summer. The record has surprisingly never been disputed – until now.
Image credit: Flickr / Skyseeker
Vaisala, a Finnish environmental monitoring company, found that Oklahoma has had slightly more lightning bolts per square kilometer over the last five years. The margin was slim. Florida’s 82.8 strikes per kilometer over the last five years barely edged Oklahoma’s 83.4 flashes, according to Vaisala’s estimations. Still, it’s significant and probably enough to crown Oklahoma as the lightning state.
Oklahoma passes Florida as the lightning capital of the U S , new report says tampabay.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from tampabay.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Oklahoma may have overtaken Florida as U S lightning capital washingtonpost.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from washingtonpost.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
His dad was dead and Matthew Anderson was face down in the sand struggling to move.
He doesn’t know how long he was unconscious – a few seconds, maybe a minute – but when his brain blinked on again like a fuzzy radio channel, Anderson knew something was off. He tried to stand, making it to his hands and knees before falling over like a wobbly boxer trying to get up after a near-knockout punch.
It was a Sunday afternoon in June and Anderson, 32, and his father, 64-year-old Mark Johnson, had just packed up their fishing gear after spotting a summer thunderstorm bubbling to their north near Stuart. The duo, both of Hobe Sound, stuck close to the water walking back to the parking lot on Jupiter Island to avoid sand that was too hot for bare feet.