It turns out there is a Guinness record for the place
with the most lightning, and an area of Venezuela with 3,600 flashes of
it per hour has won.
The certification was handed over Tuesday by Guinness Book of World Records representative Johanna Hessling.
The
natural phenomenon in the western state of Zulia is called the
Catatumbo Lightning, which generates myriad electrical storms from April
to November at the mouth of the River Catatumbo, at the southern end of
Lake Maracaibo.
The numbers of lightning bolts are indeed
staggering: an estimated 18 to 60 per minute, up to 3,600 per hour and
1.2 million a year, with each flash packing enough juice to light up 100
million light bulbs, according to the Agencia Venezolana de Noticias.
Venezuelan Vice President Jorge Arreaza received the certificate from the Guinness people.
The
phenomenon was proposed to Guinness last year by a Venezuelan
environmentalist named Erick Quiroga, who has been monitoring the
lightning for 17 years.
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