Shocking: How Many Times Missouri was Struck by Lightning in 2023

Now that 2023 is completely in the rear view mirror now, the number of lightning strikes in Missouri can finally be tallied. Please forgive the lightning pun, but the total really is shocking.

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You won't find more complete lightning statistics than the ones shared by Vaisala Weather every year. When they say they're giving you complete lightning statistics, they mean it. They have been the go-to source for lightning stats for 7 years and this year is no exception. They kept count on all kinds of different lightning including in-cloud and cloud-to-ground strikes.

Look who ended up in the top 10 states for lightning strikes in 2023. Congrats Show Me State.

Missouri had 9,621,144 lightning strikes in 2023. What a shocker. Kaboom. They also shared a map showing the frequency of lightning strikes across America where you can once again see that Missouri is on the higher end of cloud-to-ground lightning bolts.

One note on Texas being #1 for lightning strikes again is the fact that there's a lot more land in Texas to strike than just about any other. Not complaining, but I'd argue that the lightning strikes in Missouri should count as more. Does that sound petty?

Here's another interesting fact. The day with the most lightning strikes in 2023 was June 14, 2023 when America was struck by over 3.1 million lightning bolts. Oh, and wind farms were struck a lot, too. They said that one wind farm had 1,000 lightning strikes per windmill.

The Vaisala annual lightning report is one of the more interesting weather things you'll every check out if you have Nikola Tesla tendencies.