Gilbert Green is not an ordinary storm chaser. A software engineering major at Florida Gulf Coast University, who is also minoring in physics and mathematics, Green spent the summer of 2022 chasing and photographing lightning around Southwest Florida.
"I recorded daily from around 1 to 3 hours a day, depending on the storm systems that were over the state. And I attempted to record and document as many lightning events as I could," said Green.
He says he recorded somewhere between a few hundred to possibly a thousand lightning events throughout the summer.
It may not be the wisest thing to do, standing out in the rain with a camera waiting for lightning. Fortunately, living in Florida makes it easier.
Florida recorded over 18.7 million lightning flashes last year, second only to Texas with 27.7 million, according to the 2022 Vaisala XWeather Annual Lightning Report. (Florida recorded 10% of the over 198 million lightning events across the United States in 2022.)
Florida also kept the title of "Lightning Capital of the U.S." due to the density of lightning events, recording 109.84 events per km². The densest city in the U.S. (in lightning not smarts) is Four Corners, Florida. It's about two miles outside of Orlando, dead center in the state, and ranks first in cities recording 474 lightning events per km².
(Lightning count is measured by the number of lightning events that occur over a region. Lightning density is measured by the number of lightning events per square kilometer of an area. Vaisala XWeather)
Lightning is what brought physics professor Dr. Naomi Watanabe from Japan to the Lightning Capital of the World and Florida Gulf Coast University.
"It's fascinating and beautiful, but a dangerous natural phenomenon," said Watanabe. "And also it's abundant in Florida. So we have a lot of opportunity to observe a wide variety of lightning activities."
One of her focal points of study is on how to design outdoor fixtures for safety.
"If we understand the main source of lightning discharge, if we understand more details about lightning, we can design shelters and find ways to protect things from lightning."
According to the Insurance Information Institute, more than $1 billion in lightning-caused U.S. homeowners insurance claims were paid out in 2021 to 60,000-plus policyholders. Florida won in that category, as well.
A Triple I press release stated, "Florida –- the state with the most thunderstorms — remained the top state for the highest number of lightning claims in 2021, with 5,339, followed by Texas, Georgia, and California, respectively."
“Not only does lightning result in deadly fires,” said Loretta Worters, a vice president with the Triple-I, “it can cause severe damage to appliances, electronics, computers and equipment, phone systems, electrical fixtures, and the electrical foundation of a home. The resulting damage may be far more significant than a homeowner realizes. Delays in supply chain are also sending appliances and electronics prices higher.”
Also, lightning can kill. In 2021, lightning strikes caused 11 deaths and 69 injuries.
That's one of the reasons organizations, like Vaisala, the National Lightning Detection Network, NOAA, the National Weather Service, the University of Florida, and now Green and Watanabe at FGCU, study lightning.
"In a practical sense, I would just say lightning in some cases can be deadly. There is infrastructure damage from them," said Green. These storms that actually produce lightning in the first place have to be somewhat powerful to do that. So, if we can see a correlation and more quantity of lightning strikes from this summer as compared to a previous summer and one in the future, then we can deduce that there possibly is more precipitation. If there's more, then there's more interaction in the upper atmosphere that causes lightning. And so we can infer that in the future there should be a higher quantity of lightning strikes with the increase in precipitation that we're seeing in the atmosphere."
Vaisala counts in-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning for their annual report, but there are several other kinds of lightning. Green said he recorded at least five types over the summer: cloud-to-ground, cloud-to-cloud, ground-to-cloud, inter-cloud, and spider lightning.
It is the very rare spider lightning that brought Watanabe and Green together to begin their own independent guided physics research.
"He showed me a very nice picture of lightning and I had a spark. Wow. Because he had the same direction I had. I hadn't seen a student who was as fascinated with lightning," said Watanabe.
Her spark lead to a desire for them to research, write and publish an abstract about spider lightning for scientific journals, and possibly present at the American Geophysical Union. Their research is why Green found himself out in the rain last summer.
"They (spider lightning) don't pose as much risk as other types, although they are sometimes associated with cloud to ground strikes," said Green. "They are very powerful lightning events. They're stunning as compared to just a cloud-to-ground."
Spider lightning is identified by it's distinctive horizontal flash at the bottom of stratiform clouds, appearing like an upside down spider. Plus, they're very rare. Spider lightning is mostly found in Southwest Florida and over Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela due to its high frequency of all lighting of all types. (According to Earth Data, a NASA website, the lake receives over 250 lightning strikes per kilometer every night. Called,"Catatumbo lightning" or the "everlasting storm," the area may have up to 300 storms annually.)
It's global scarcity is one of the reasons why Green is excited to capture spider lightning here in Southwest Florida.
"These flashes can extend 20 miles. One example, I know that there was a lightning event in Cape Coral that extended all the way to Bonita Springs. So they can be rather fantastic when you do see them," said Green.
Green and Watanabe are investigating how the rare spider lightning develops and its meteorological impact. They were kind enough to keep the explanation fairly simple so those of us not studying physics or meteorology might understand.
"We are in the process of investigating how air temperature, pressure, wind speed, intensity or precipitation, other kinds meteorological conditions, initiate spider lightning," said Watanabe.
Green shared what they've observed so far.
"These storms that actually produce lightning in the first place have to be somewhat powerful. Typically, spider lightning occurs at night. So, the combination of reduced solar energy and the storm interacting with the Gulf Coast starts to cause the storm to decay. From the decay, this causes stratified clouds, which are basically chopped up and distribute over the area. This may cause some imbalances in the electromagnetic fields."
"So, if we can see a correlation and more quantity of lightning strikes from this summer as compared to a previous summer and one in the future, we can infer that in the future there should be a higher quantity of lightning strikes with the increase in precipitation that we're seeing in the atmosphere."
Watanabe and Green intend to publish their spider lightning research in spring 2023. Green also hopes to defend his honors thesis on the topic before he graduates this May.
Green then has even loftier goals.
"After I graduate, I'm hoping to work at NOAA. And one of the jobs that I am currently applying for is to work with a satellite that will be looking at space weather and specifically solar weather. So weather from the sun specifically."
It is advised to photograph lightning cautiously. The National Weather Serviceoffers several tips on how to be alert and safe in the case of lightning. NWS based out of Melbourne also hasFlorida specific information.
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