A fascinating map has shown the locations around the world hit by over 35,000 lightning strikes today alone.
The map, made by Blitzortung, shows that only a few lightning strikes occurred in the Irish Sea on Monday, close to both England and Ireland.
In the rest of Europe, strikes were seen in Italy, Slovakia, and Hungary with a smaller number of flashes in other parts of the continent.
A large number was also seen in Estonia, in eastern Europe, and Western Russia.
A concentration of strikes was seen in Panama, Central America.
In Central China, in a more remote region between Shanghai and the capital Beijing, a large cluster of lightning activity was seen on Monday.
A similarly large amount of activity was seen in the East China Sea, between Japan and the Philippines.
In the US, lightning was scattered between the states of Washington and Idaho, as well as in South Dakota, Minneapolis, Illinois, Michigan, and Florida.
Lightning strikes are a big spark of electricity that occurs in the Earth’s atmosphere.
They are caused by the air’s insulating capacity breaking down. Lightning can also be caused by precipitation particles like rain, ice crystals, and graupel colliding in a thunderstorm cloud.
When the particles collide, electrons are exchanged, causing an electric charge in the cloud.
The negative charge is attracted to the Earth’s surface, resulting in the flash of lightning travelling to the ground.
Lightning can heat the air to around 10,000C. The explosive expansion then causes the booming sound of thunder.
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