This past weekend, WRAL covered a pair of house fires that were likely due to lightning strikes - one in Holly Springs and another in Wake Forest.

I've been sent a number of pictures from viewers about lightning striking trees on their property/in their neighborhood. The one below is from Jay Whitley in Smithfield from this past weekend.

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The scar left behind by a lightning strike on a tree in Smithfield. Photo: Jay Whitley
The scar left behind by a lightning strike on a tree in Smithfield. Photo: Jay Whitley (© WRAL)

It begs the question: are we seeing more lightning than usual this July?

How this July's lightning compares to the past

North Carolina averages 3.8 million lightning strikes per year. That's the average - at least - from 2015 to 2019, according to Vaisala. According to that data, North Carolina ranks 18th in the country in total lightning strikes.

The National Lightning Detection Network can account for nearly 97% of cloud-to-ground lightning strikes, according to EarthSky.

With this in mind, I went and looked at the data for July. So far this month, North Carolina has seen around 177,000 strikes.

Number of lightning strikes in North Carolina this July
Number of lightning strikes in North Carolina this July (© WRAL)

You can look at the raw data here.

As for how that compares to the last few years, 177,000 total strikes is something we haven't seen through this point in July since 2019.

Lightning count from July 1 to July 19 since 2017
Lightning count from July 1 to July 19 since 2017 (© WRAL)

How does lightning even form?

This ties into a question we received from Mark Watson. He writes, "Does the rain in thunderstorms initially begin as snow?"

It depends on what you define as the "beginning" of a thunderstorm. If you're talking about the top of the cloud, then yes.

As warm, very humid air rises, a cloud forms. That cloud grows into a taller part of the atmosphere. That part is very cold, so you have a lot of snow and ice in the top of these storm clouds.

Warm air rises, a cloud forms and the top of the cloud contains snow and hail
Warm air rises, a cloud forms and the top of the cloud contains snow and hail (© WRAL)

Frozen and liquid precipitation collide, exchanging electrical charges. These positive and negative charges build in the cloud and on the ground. As the electric field strengthens, discharge happens. That's your lightning strike.

How lightning forms in a storm
How lightning forms in a storm (© WRAL)

Because it's been such a hot and such a humid July, these storms have more fuel to work with. Therefore, they're efficient lightning producers.

Have questions about the weather and how it works?

Send me an email with the subject line 'Ask the Meteorologist:' to cmichaels@pugongyingbo.com.