Texas is the busiest state in the USA when it comes to lightning and one of the biggest cities in the lone star state has more lightning "events" annually than all the rest.

From the turnouts along Trans Mountain in El Paso, you can watch lightning storms form and drift in from miles and miles away. You sometimes even get the feeling you're at the same level. I love watching lightning storms from up there but there's one city in Texas where the odds of seeing lightning are way higher.

There aren't many places where you can sit up that high and watch storms roll in but Houston not only has loads of lightning, they also have some really tall buildings you may be able to watch from.

A Finnish company that specializes in "environmental measurement systems and products", Vaisala, recently named Houston the lightning capital of the USA.

What Vaisala found in 2024 is that not only does lightning occur more often in Texas, but that an area stretching across the Gulf of Mexico, then northwest from the Houston area into Oklahoma, is particularly hot for the phenomenon. Moreover, the greater Houston area and counties just northwest see more cloud-to-ground flashes per density than anywhere in the U.S. Even more specifically, the lightning capital of Texas—and ultimately the U.S.—is Teague, a city in Freestone County about 100 miles southeast. - chron

Teague averaged about 2 lightning "events" per day, totaling 736 for the year. The 2nd highest lightning rate in the country, (414), was in Orlando, Florida. Teague is about 2.5 hours north of Houston ... a drive along I-45 north that should be "electrifying".

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