- Catatumbo lightning is a natural phenomenon in which lightning strikes almost continuously, happens at the Catatumbo River of Venezuela where it meets Lake Maracaibo largest lake in the country.
- Warm, moist air from the Caribbean Sea is pushed towards the Andes mountains, where it collides with cooler air descending from the peaks.
- As the warmer air is forced to rise rapidly by the shape of the local landscape, it cools and condenses, forming towering cumulonimbus clouds.
- Meanwhile, the combination of strong winds and temperature differential generates electrical charges within these clouds.
- The cumulonimbus clouds load up on static electricity. When the electrical potential within the clouds becomes too great, it discharges in the form of lightning.
- The strikes occur for up to 160 nights in a year, with an average of 28 lightning strikes per minute at its peak.
- Thanks to this constant flow of current, the area has earned the title of ‘the lightning capital of the world’.
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