Worldwide Lightning Density

1600 to 2000 thunderstorms are simultaneously constantly active in this world.

Of course, they are not evenly distributed. About 70% of them occur in the (tropical) regions ± 38º latitude, where the flash hotspots can be found.

How many flashes per second occur worldwide does not seem to be really known. Official data in various publications vary between 40 and 100 flashes / s.

283 are in Africa among the top 500 of the world's most flashy places, write the savants. This is followed by Asia with 87 and South America with 67.

I have reviewed a lot of publications and compiled the most intense flash hotspots of countries in the world. Interestingly, very different statements are made for the same areas in these publications. There is no consensus. That's why I've used averages in these places. The overall statement of the compilation does not change thereby.

In the Placemarks I have given the average number of flashes per year per square kilometer, and (if known) the number of thunderstorms per year.
For countries without a hotspot (for example Russia), no data was found (or there are no significant locations).

The compilation does not claim to be complete or scientifically correct and only serves as an overview.

Sources:

agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
archive.stats.govt.nz
earthobservatory.nasa.gov
galileo.tv
geology.com
infoclimat.fr
journals.ametsoc.org
lightningmaps.org
nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net
researchgate.net
sos.noaa.gov
Wikipedia
and many articles in magazines

Attachments:

Global Lightning Density.kmz (251.27 KB)

Why is lightning energy not used?
Bright light, thunder rumble and dreaded destructive power - the energy of lightning seems gigantic. We should use this heavenly power for environmentally friendly power generation - why are there no lightning power plants?
The reason is known to a scientist who has been researching lightning for many years.: "In a flash there is far less energy than many people assume. The enormous destructive power of a lightning bolt is due to the fact that the energy is released in an extremely short time, "explains he. "If you were to consume the electrical energy of a lightning over a long period evenly, the performance would be very weak," says the flash expert.
Unfortunately, it is not a heavenly source of energy. According to him, a large part of the energy is lost during the lightning strike itself: In the lightning channel, the electrical energy is converted into heat, light and pressure waves. That's what makes this sky spectacle so impressive for us. But at the impact site only a fraction of the original energy remains.
Apart from the weak power, lightning would also be a very unreliable source of energy: There are always storms around the world and millions of lightning strikes every day across the sky on our planet, but where and when they occur is unpredictable. The absolute lightning hotspot was determined by a research team from the University of Sao Paulo using satellite data. The world record holds according to the Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. There it flashes on a square kilometer on average on 297 days a year. But even these record flashes would not be suitable for exploitation. A lightning power plant would therefore be unemployed most of the time and if in fact a flash of lightning would hit, it could not even be sufficiently self-sufficient with the amount of energy it received, the expert concluded.

Many decades ago scientists believed that all the lightning strikes in the world could solve our energy problems if we could find a way to store that energy. Now it turns out that their power is too weak.
Research and science learn a little more every day. Everything is changing: What is sold today as a truth may be a nice story in a few years ...
Cheers!
Pitter