Catatumbo lightning — the everlasting storm

OVERVIEW

The Catatumbo lightning occurs over the bog where the Catatumbo River flows into Lake Maracaibo. It comes from storm clouds above 1 km, 140–160 nights a year, about nine hours a night, flashing 16 to 40 times a minute — some 250 flashes per square kilometre per year by NASA's count, the highest density in the world. In January to March 2010 it stopped, apparently because of drought, and people feared it had gone for good.

HISTORY

Colonial Spanish and Portuguese sources called it the Lanterns of Saint Anthony and the Lighthouse of Maracaibo. Humboldt described it in 1826, and Agustín Codazzi in 1841 wrote that it guided navigators like a lighthouse. Catatumbo means "house of thunder" in the Barí language, and in Wayuu culture it is a signal from nature for respect and strength. It is on the flag of Zulia state.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

Like Hessdalen, this is on the map as an instrumented anomaly. Andrei Zavrotsky proposed meeting air currents (1991) and even uranium in the bedrock; four studies in 1997–2000 proposed methane from the swamps and oil fields, a model the observed seasons contradict. The Universidad del Zulia has tied its variability to the ITCZ, El Niño and a low-level jet, and a 2016 study showed it can be forecast months ahead. What drives it in exactly that place is still argued.

VISITING

Seen from Lake Maracaibo and the surrounding plains; it has been visible for miles, which is how it became the Lighthouse of Maracaibo. Check current conditions in the region before travelling.