Which state is America’s 'lightning king'?

New research reveals the U.S. states that saw the most lightning activity in 2020, with Texas again topping the list.

"A cloud-to-ground stroke, also known as a stroke, is a lightning discharge that connects a charge region in a cloud to the ground and is the bright, high current, visible part of lightning that touches the ground or an object," explained Vaisala in the annual lightning report. "A cloud-to-ground flash consists of at least one cloud-to-ground stroke and is dangerous to life and property." Overall, the number of cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning events in the continental U.S. in 2020 was 170,549,822, down from 222,988,888 in 2019.