Then at night, the land cools faster than the lake, and winds reverse to converge across the surface of the lake. The hills warm faster than the lake, and divergent winds move across the surface of the lake towards the land. Through the day, the lake and the surrounding hills are heated by the sun. This makes the lake a ready source of heat and humidity to drive convection. The waters are very warm throughout the year, normally between 28 and 31 degrees Celsius (82 to 88 degrees Fahrenheit). It is surrounded by mountains on three sides. Lake Maracaibo is the largest lake in South America, with a surface area of 13,210 square kilometers. This topographic configuration contributes to the abundant lightning over the lake. Topography and Lightning: The Lake Maracaibo basin is located between the most northern ridges of the Andes Mountain Range. The lightning is centered above the mouth of the river. It is named after the Catatumbo River, which enters Lake Maracaibo on its southern shore. Local people call this phenomenon "Relámpago del Catatumbo" (Catatumbo lightning). Lake Maracaibo has a reputation for its lightning that dates back before the start of written history. Related: Global Maps of Lightning Activity World Famous for Centuries In press, early online release accessed May, 2016. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. Where are the lightning hotspots on Earth? Rachel I. This map was created by Norman Einstein and is used here under a GNU Free Document License. The lightning hotspot is centered on the south end of the lake, where nocturnal thunderstorms produce lightning an average of about 297 nights per year. It is located in northwestern Venezuela about ten degrees north of the equator. A table listing the world's top ten hotspots accompanies this article. In addition to Venezuela and Democratic Republic of the Congo, locations in Colombia, Pakistan, and Cameroon are in the world's top ten lightning hotspots. They do not come close to rivaling its lightning activity. To illustrate how the Lake Maracaibo hotspot is in a class of its own, the second and third place hotspots had flash rate densities of 205.31 (Kabare, Democratic Republic of the Congo) and 176.71 (Kampene, Democratic Republic of the Congo). That means that the area experiences an average of 232.52 flashes of lightning per square kilometer per year. This area has a lightning flash rate density of 232.52. That hotspot is located over the southern end of Lake Maracaibo, a brackish bay in northwestern Venezuela. One small area in northern South America is clearly the world's principal lightning hotspot. A detailed report of their work was published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. They were able to identify and rank small areas of Earth that generated the greatest amount of lightning during the 1998 to 2013 observation period. This brought the global distribution of lightning activity into very clear focus. Using 16 years of lightning data, researchers were able to scan the earth for areas of intense lightning activity at a resolution of 0.1 degree.
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