About When Lightning Strikes
To get in touch: Please reach out to faculty adviser Cynthia Barnett.
Journalists
Illustrator: Emilia Arnold
Bea Anhuci | 🔗
Cynthia Barnett, Director of Climate and Environment Reporting Initiatives, UF College of Journalism and Communications
David Kofahl, Visiting Professional, interactives and design, UF College of Journalism and Communications
Gavin Off, Data Journalism Lecturer, UF College of Journalism and Communications
Production and additional Editing
Rylan DiGiacomo-Rapp, Fellow, WUFT Environment & Ag Desk
Leah Harding, WUFT News
Rose Schnabel, Report for America Corps Member on WUFT’s Environment & Ag Desk
With special thanks to
Lightning safety specialist John Jensenius and The National Lightning Safety Council
Vaisala and its National Lightning Detection Network
Dr. Ziqin Ding, University of Florida International Center for Lightning Research and Testing
Dr. Henry Fuelberg, Professor of Meteorology, Florida State University
April Hines, Journalism and Mass Communications Librarian in UF’s George A. Smathers Libraries
Harrison Hove, Interim Chair and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Journalism, for funding to support the students’ travel and reporting
Ethan Magoc, Interim Director, WUFT’s Innovation News Center
Donors to UF’s Environmental Journalism Gift Fund for supporting the next generation of environmental storytellers in Florida and beyond
A note on our lightning analysis
To analyze lightning strikes in Florida, UF’s College of Journalism and Communications requested and obtained data from Vaisala’s National Lightning Detection Network.
Vaisala is a world leader in detecting lightning. Its detection database captures, in real time, cloud-to-ground strikes and in-cloud strikes across the United States.
Vaisala provided data on every lightning strike over Florida from Sept. 30, 2020, through Sept. 30, 2025 – some 89 million records.
We mapped the strikes, removing about 2 million that occurred just off Florida’s shores. We then grouped the data by year and Census tract and calculated the average, maximum, and minimum peak current (intensity) for ground strikes each year.
We shared our findings and methodology with a Vaisala representative, who confirmed the accuracy of our work.
