Did You Know Lightning Can Strike 10 Times in One Spot?

“Lightning is one of nature’s most capricious phenomena, yet it can be remarkably repetitive,” says Dr. Elena Marchetti, a plasma physicist at the University of Bologna and lead author of a new study on lightning attachment patterns. “We’ve documented strikes hitting the same location — within a meter — up to ten times in a single storm.”

That’s not a typo. Ten times. And it’s not just a statistical fluke — it’s a fundamental, and largely overlooked, behavior of electrical discharges in the atmosphere. For decades, scientists assumed lightning strikes were essentially random events, scattered across the landscape like darts thrown at a map. But new research, published this month in Geophysical Research Letters, suggests the opposite: lightning has a favorite spot. And it’ll keep coming back.

This changes everything — from how we design lightning rods to how we predict severe storms. So, let’s unpack what’s really going on up there.

The Repetitive Strike Phenomenon

Dr. Marchetti’s team analyzed high-speed video footage and electromagnetic field data from 47 thunderstorms over northern Italy between 2019 and 2023. They tracked over 1,200 individual lightning flashes. What they found was startling: roughly 15% of all ground strikes hit a spot that had already been struck during the same storm. In extreme cases, a single point — often a metal fence post, a lone tree, or the corner of a building — was hit five, six, even ten times in the space of 30 minutes.

“The key factor is the local electric field enhancement,” explains Dr. Marchetti. “Once a point has been struck, the ground around it becomes ionized — charged particles linger in the soil and air. That creates a preferential path for the next leader stroke. It’s like a path of least resistance, and lightning is lazy.”

This isn’t entirely new to science — the concept of “repetitive strikes” has been whispered about in engineering circles for years. But the scale and consistency of the data shocked even the researchers. Previous studies had suggested maybe 2-3% of strikes repeat. Marchetti’s number is five times higher.

And it’s not just about the number of strikes. The team also found that the time between repeat strikes was often less than 10 seconds — sometimes as little as 2.3 seconds. That’s fast enough to be a serious hazard for anyone caught outside, even after the “first” lightning strike has passed. “People think, ‘Oh, lightning struck that tree, I’m safe now,'” says Dr. Marchetti. “No. That tree is now the most dangerous place in the field.”

Why This Matters for Public Safety

Let’s be blunt: the standard lightning safety advice — “when thunder roars, go indoors” — is still good. But it’s incomplete. The new research suggests that after a strike, the immediate area remains highly susceptible for several minutes. The old rule of waiting 30 minutes after the last thunderclap? It might need to be extended to account for these repetitive strikes on the same structure.

Consider this: in the United States, lightning kills an average of 20 people per year and injures hundreds more. Most victims are caught outdoors — on golf courses, at soccer games, or working on farms. If they assume the danger passes after one flash, they’re wrong. “We need to update public messaging,” says Dr. James Holloway, a meteorologist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory who was not involved in the study. “The message should be: ‘After a strike, the target is still hot — literally and electrically.'”

This is especially critical for outdoor event organizers, construction crews, and emergency responders. Imagine a wildfire crew working near a ridge — a single lightning strike could ignite a spot fire. But if the lightning returns to that same point every few minutes, the risk multiplies. The Bay of Biscay storm that unleashed freak lightning earlier this year showed just how concentrated electrical activity can get in a short period.

And it’s not just about safety — it’s about infrastructure. The Empire State Building gets struck about 20 times a year. But this new data suggests that during a single thunderstorm, a skyscraper could be hit multiple times in rapid succession, potentially overwhelming its lightning protection system. Engineers designing new buildings — or retrofitting old ones — may need to account for repetitive strikes when calculating conductor thickness and grounding capacity.

A Global Pattern — and a Climate Wildcard

So, is this just a European phenomenon? Unlikely. Marchetti’s team is now collaborating with researchers in the United States, Brazil, and India to see if the pattern holds globally. Early results from Florida — the lightning capital of North America — suggest it does. “We’re seeing the same thing in Orlando as we saw in Bologna,” says Dr. Marchetti. “Lightning has no passport.”

But here’s the wildcard: climate change. The atmosphere is warming, and with it, the energy available for thunderstorms is increasing. A warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, and more moisture means more charge separation within clouds. According to a 2023 study from the University of California, Berkeley, the frequency of lightning strikes in the United States could increase by 12% for every degree Celsius of warming. If repetitive strikes also become more common — and there’s no reason they wouldn’t — the danger escalates.

This connects to broader patterns of extreme weather that we’re already seeing. The scorching heat shifting east across Europe is fueling more intense thunderstorms, and with them, more lightning. It’s a feedback loop: heat drives storms, storms produce lightning, and lightning can ignite wildfires — which in turn release more carbon into the atmosphere. The 2023 Canadian wildfire season, which burned over 45 million acres, was triggered in large part by lightning strikes. If those strikes are hitting the same spots repeatedly, the fire risk becomes even harder to manage.

But there’s a silver lining. Understanding that lightning has a “memory” could allow forecasters to predict where the next strike will hit — with surprising accuracy. “If we can identify the location of a first strike in real time, we can issue a targeted warning that the same spot is likely to be hit again within minutes,” says Dr. Holloway. “That’s not science fiction. The technology exists.”

What This Means for You

Look, I’m not saying you should start wearing a Faraday cage every time you step outside. But the takeaway is simple: lightning is more predictable than we thought, and that predictability can save lives. If you’re caught in a storm, avoid the tallest objects — but also avoid the spots where lightning has already struck. They’re magnets for the next bolt.

For homeowners, that means checking your property for potential strike points: lone trees, metal flagpoles, satellite dishes. If one of them gets hit during a storm, stay away from it for at least 30 minutes after the last thunder. For businesses, especially those with outdoor facilities, consider installing lightning detection systems that can track repetitive strikes and trigger automated warnings.

And for the rest of us? Just remember: lightning doesn’t play favorites. But it does have habits. And now we know what they are.