Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo is considered the lightning capital of the world

As of 2025, the longest lightning bolt in the world spanned several states

Although the average bolt measures less than 16 kilometers (10 miles), the 2017 "megaflash" spanned 829 kilometers (515 miles) from eastern Texas to Missouri. Severe thunderstorms are common in the region, where warm, humid air from the Gulf collides with cool, dry air from the north, generating atmospheric instability.

Between 2006 and 2021, 444 people died from lightning strikes in the US

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports that the odds of being struck by lightning in one's lifetime are one in 18,864. Participation in outdoor activities during the summer months in Florida, Texas, and Colorado increases one's risk of exposure.

Lightning storms are more common in coastal and tropical regions

Water-abundant areas that receive increased solar radiation, such as those near the equator, experience increased rates of evaporation, which produce tall clouds as moisture rises, cools, and condenses. Mountain ranges can also steer air to higher altitudes, creating collisions between atmospheric particles that generate charge imbalances—the precursors to lightning.

The air around lightning can be five times hotter than the sun's surface

The rapid discharge of electricity—flowing electrons—between oppositely charged regions across a narrow filament can raise temperatures to 30,000 degrees Celsius (54,000 degrees Fahrenheit). If lightning strikes a tree, the speed of the temperature spike can almost immediately turn all its water into pressurized steam, causing it to explode.

Dirty lightning is a thunderstorm created from friction between rising and falling flows of ash and smoke during volcanic eruptions.

Track lightning strikes around the world

The Blitzortung platform triangulates the positions of this phenomenon from stations that detect atmospheric interference in low-frequency signals that are characteristic of lightning strikes. A network of nearly 2,000 stations transmits the required data to a central server, where its software performs these calculations and generates the subsequent visualization.

Visualize the global Venezuelan diaspora

This visualization maps Venezuela’s mass diaspora, showing how millions have fled abroad—primarily to Latin America, with significant flows to the US and Europe—creating one of the most significant displacement crises in the world.

Explore a gallery of lightning photography taken from the Grand Canyon

In this series, award-winning photographer Adam Schallau accompanies each image with expert advice on how to capture the phenomenon successfully. Initially requiring the shutter to remain open for extended periods, today's technology includes a device called a lightning trigger, which senses incoming lightning and automatically manages the shutter.

A volcanic island north of Sicily is the world's longest continuously active volcano

Stromboli has been releasing lava for at least 2,000 years, with the earliest recorded eruption dating back to 350 BCE. Its mild but ongoing bursts of bright lava have earned it the nickname, "lighthouse of the Mediterranean."

Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia hold more than 75% of the world’s supply of lithium

Despite the dependence of phones, laptops, electric cars, and other technologies on the soft, silvery-white metal for their batteries, residents of the Lithium Triangle have not seen the benefits of investments into mining this critical mineral, and have instead faced water shortages and pollution.

View the most turbulent flight routes and airports around the world

Using data from NOAA and the UK Met Office, these maps identify South America as the geographic region with the highest average turbulence. The most turbulent flights in North America are all found in the western United States.

Venezuela is experiencing hyperinflation

Consumer prices in the country have risen at a fairly quick rate since 1983, but a series of policy miscalculations, falling oil prices, and other factors have sparked extreme levels of inflation since 2017, with citizens losing faith in the value of the national currency.

Dust from the Sahel and Saharan regions makes northwest Africa a hurricane nursery

NASA’s Convective Processes Experiment—Cabo Verde studied the early stages of hurricane formation, identifying how dust interacts with clouds over the ocean to produce the rainy disturbances that become tropical cyclones.

See Christmas traditions from around the world

From Venezuelans roller-skating to church to the decoration of boats in Greece, Christmas traditions vary widely all around the world. See examples from 30 different countries, which highlight how a country’s history shapes its holiday traditions.

These animals are only found in the Amazon rainforest.

The mighty Amazon River and its surrounding rainforest is home to millions of different species of animals, with new ones being discovered regularly.

There's a bitcoin mine in remote Zambia

In Zambia, a small hydropower plant draws water to power a town of 15,000 people—and a bitcoin mine. A shipping container containing 120 computers mining bitcoin—solving complex calculations to win the reward of several bitcoin—was set up near the plant to use its cheap electricity, and share its revenue.

China makes 90% of the world's fireworks, with Liuyang as its production capital

Fireworks were invented in China, but their predecessor, the firecracker, was discovered in Liuyang upon burning bamboo. Pyrotechnics have since become part of the city's culture. Liuyang has won many international fireworks display competitions.

Auroral myths include Valkyries, firefoxes, and torchlight from giants fishing at night

In Norse mythology, the light displays were considered reflections from the Valkyries' armor as the female warriors brought the souls of heroes to Valhalla. In Finland, firefoxes were thought to move so fast that they created sparks in the sky as their tails brushed against mountains.

Layers of minerals revealed by erosion give Vinicunca its distinct colorations

Located in Peru's Andean mountains, Rainbow Mountain is known for its vibrant colors, which result from layers of minerals such as clay, sandstone, argillite, and limonite exposed over millions of years by rain, snowfall, and strong winds.

Tenochtitlan, the Aztec Venice of Mesoamerica

Tenochtitlan was the capital city of the Aztecs, founded around 1325 on an island in Lake Texcoco, in what is today Mexico. It was a major political, economic, and religious center until its destruction by the Spanish in 1521. This video explores the marvels of the city, which began as an island but grew via causeways and in-filled land and culminating in a North American Venice.

Fly through the Valles Marineris, the largest canyon in the solar system

Stretching farther than the width of the continental US and with depths as much as four times those of the Grand Canyon, the Valles Marineris is believed to have formed when Mars’s crust tore open during intense volcanism in the planet’s past.

See the 25 of the best photos of auroras from around the world.

Visualize the power and frequency of earthquake magnitudes

About 150 medium earthquakes—magnitude 6.0—occur every year, resulting in moderate shaking and some property damage. While millions of earthquakes below category 2.0 occur yearly, fewer than one of category 9.0 or higher occurs on average.

Disney World is largely mosquito-free, thanks to civil engineer Joe Potter

As a former governor of the mosquito-prone Panama Canal zone, Potter understood the danger of standing water. At Disney, Potter built ditches to reduce moisture, designed buildings to channel water away, and more. His efforts help visitors avoid bites, adding to the perceived magic of the magical kingdom.

Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flat

Often considered the largest natural mirror on Earth, the flat bed exhibits reflective properties, particularly after significant rainfall. However, its reflectivity varies spatially and temporally as water evaporates.

Some North American bats can glow in the dark

After examining 60 museum specimens from six different species, scientists found that all of them emitted light after being exposed to ultraviolet radiation. Researchers are perplexed by this natural phenomenon and are currently unable to deduce the reason behind it.

A dispute about the origin of twitching frog legs led to the invention of the first battery

Experiments by Luigi Galvani on exposed frog leg nerves showed activity when they were hung from iron railings and brass hooks, suggesting the existence of "animal electricity" that discharged when connected to metals. Alessandro Volta's voltaic pile, which stacked metals with an inorganic electrolyte, showed that electricity originates from chemical reactions.

Hurricanes, which rely on air consistently spinning in the same direction, cannot cross the equator because air curves in opposite directions north and south of it.

Scientists have struggled to pin down Ebola's natural reservoir species for decades, but the available evidence suggests that it's very likely fruit and insect-eating bats found in Africa.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

Waves off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal, can reach over 100 feet and are caused by the area's deep underwater canyon geography

This real-time tracking of the hantavirus cruise ship outbreak in May 2026 offers a unique glimpse into the global reach of the outbreak and whether the virus sickened passengers and their communities around the world.

Discover the catastrophic consequences of a failure of the US electrical grid—something that is more likely than many Americans think.

El Niño, Spanish for 'the boy,' was named after Jesus Christ because the phenomenon resembled the weather changes observed around Christmastime.

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.

Power lines are dotted with large, brightly colored balls to improve the visibility of these thin wires to helicopters and small planes and help prevent potential crashes.

See a 3D reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that was home to an estimated population of 200,000 to 400,000.

Fireworks-related ER visits are on the rise—in 2024, they increased by 52% as compared to the prior year.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

Coral polyps reproduce via broadcast spawning, where entire reefs simultaneously release reproductive cells for about one hour, once a year.

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II in casualties, forces mobilized, and displacement of civilians.

The US first hosted the World Cup in 1994, a tournament that lives in soccer infamy for its poor planning and the murder of Colombian player Andres Escobar, who'd accidentally scored on his own net.

Most of the observable universe's volume consists of voids and supervoids—enormous regions of space with little to no galaxies, stars, or light.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

Explore chaos in this simulation of two double pendulums, where small differences in the release angles produce wildly different outcomes.

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

Venture capital is a form of funding provided to early-stage companies with high growth potential, typically in exchange for an equity (or ownership) stake

In 1945, Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and legendary animator Walt Disney began collaborating on a short film that was not completed until 2003, years after both men had died.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.