Oklahoma is the new lightning capital of the U.S. according to a new study

For years, Florida has dominated the charts when it comes to lightning. Weather patters around the sunny state kick off regular thunderstorms, especially in the summer. But, according the annual lightning report produced by environmental data firm AEM, another state is now the lightning capital of the U.S.: Oklahoma.

In 2025, Oklahoma recorded roughly 73 lightning flashes per square mile, the highest concentration in the nation. This change points to a broader shift in severe weather patterns across the country, with the Great Plains emerging as a new epicenter for high-impact storms.

"Oklahoma’s rise to the top of our lightning rankings represents a significant shift in 2025’s weather patterns compared with past years," said Elizabeth DiGangi, a lightning scientist at AEM, in an official statement. Advances in lightning detection technology, she noted, now make it easier to see how and where storm behavior is evolving.

The data behind the report comes from AEM’s Earth Networks Total Lightning Network, which uses more than 1,800 sensors across the United States to track lightning activity in real time. In total, the network detected nearly 430 million lightning pulses within 88.4 million lightning flashes nationwide in 2025, a nearly 10 percent increase from the year before.

Florida's downgrade doesn't mean the state suddenly became storm-free. The state was drier than average last year, in part because most Atlantic hurricanes never made it to land. Oklahoma, on the other hand, experienced months of above-average precipitation. Frequent severe weather created ideal conditions for thunderstorms to light up. The north of the state was particularly fired up. Kay County, which registered more than 123 flashes per square mile, was the most lightning-dense county in America.

While Oklahoma claimed the title for concentration, Texas dominated in volume. The state recorded more than 13 million lightning flashes last year, about 1.3 million above its historical average. Texas also registered the highest number of Dangerous Thunderstorm Alerts, a metric AEM uses to flag storms with exceptionally intense lightning rates and rapid intensification.

Other key findings reveal that June 15 was the most lightning-intense day of the year, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport dealt with more than 10,000 lightning flashes and the landmark that experienced the most lightning flashes was Chicago's Millennium Park. 

A "first look" at the report can be found here, and the full report with more lightning stats from last year is set to be released next week.