The Most Electric Place in the World

Corde’ Shaw. Photo from https://gohighbrow.com/catatumbo-lightning/

AUG. 14, 2020: My parents and I took a trip to Venezuela, South America. We went to go see the phenomenon we were all hearing about at Catatumbo River near Lake Maracaibo. This river and lake are home to the famous Catatumbo Lightning. I did a little research and discovered that NASA has given it the name of the Lightning Capital of The World.

The people there told me that Catatumbo means continuous lightning. But that would make sense because the Catatumbo lightning lasts every night for about half the nights of the year. Scientists had said that the reason for the constant lightning is simply because of the geography. While being there they told me that the warm Caribbean Sea winds collide with the cool Andes Mountain breeze make it perfect for the creation of thunderstorms.

I wondered what all this lightning was doing to and or for the environment. Apparently Catatumbo Lightning thunderstorms have a benefit for the ozone layer of the Earth’s atmosphere. It produces the highest percentage of the ozone layer production worldwide. It produces 1,176,000kW of atmospheric electricity. 

With this said, I believe this is an amazing trip to go on virtually and possibly even real life, but not on the water of course.

Corde’ Shaw is a sixth grade scholar at Friendship Southeast Middle School.