In Venezuela, a lake roughly the size of Connecticut experiences thunderstorms on nearly 300 nights a year, with lightning sometimes flashing about 28 times a minute for hours. NASA satellite data confirmed Lake Maracaibo as Earth’s most intense lightning hotspot in 2016 — and although scientists understand the unusual mix of warm water, humid winds and surrounding mountains that drives it, they are still working out why the storms there are so extraordinarily persistent.

In Venezuela, a lake roughly the size of Connecticut experiences thunderstorms on nearly 300 nights a year, with lightning sometimes flashing about 28 times a minute for hours. NASA satellite data confirmed Lake Maracaibo as Earth’s most intense lightning hotspot in 2016 — and although scientists understand the unusual mix of warm water, humid winds and surrounding mountains that drives it, they are still working out why the storms there are so extraordinarily persistent.

On many nights in northwestern Venezuela, darkness does not stay dark for long. Thunderstorms repeatedly assemble over the southern reaches of Lake Maracaibo, and their clouds can flicker with lightning for hours. The display is known as Catatumbo lightning, after the river that enters the lake near its most active zone. The headline numbers sound almost unreal: thunderstorms on roughly 300 nights a year and, during the most intense episodes, ab…