It Sounded Plausible: This Belief About Lightning Could Be Risky

Introduction: A Popular Saying with Shocking Flaws

You’ve probably heard someone say “lightning never strikes the same place twice.” It’s a reassuring thought—that nature’s most dramatic electrical display observes some rule of fairness, never targeting the same victim twice. And the idea seems reasonable enough: Lightning appears random, and with the entire Earth as a potential target, what are the odds of the exact same spot getting hit again? Unfortunately for this common belief, science tells a completely different story.

This misconception has evolved into an idiom meant to suggest that unusual or extraordinary events don’t happen to the same person twice. While it makes for a nice metaphor about life’s unpredictability, it’s wrong about actual lightning behavior.

Lightning not only can strike the same place twice—it frequently does. The Empire State Building in New York City is struck by lightning approximately 25 times every year. During one particularly intense storm, it was struck eight times in just 24 minutes. Far from avoiding previously struck locations, lightning seems to prefer returning to familiar spots.

The Science of the Strike

To understand why lightning can strike repeatedly in the same location, we need to examine how lightning works. Lightning is an electrical discharge that occurs when imbalances develop between storm clouds and the ground. When a channel of negative charge—called a stepped leader—races downward from a cloud, objects on the ground send up positively charged sparks called streamers. When these connect, we see the brilliant flash we recognize as lightning.

Tall structures like skyscrapers, mountains, and trees are more likely to produce these upward streamers, making them natural lightning rods. This is why experts recommend installing lightning rods on your house. Lightning protection systems for buildings are designed specifically with the knowledge that lightning does strike repeatedly in the same place. These systems don’t prevent strikes: They provide a safe path for electrical current to follow, protecting the structure and its occupants.

Even more surprising, a single lightning “strike” often involves multiple rapid discharges along the same channel. Using high-speed photography, scientists have documented multiple pulses of light within a single lightning strike. Once a conductive path forms between cloud and ground, it essentially becomes a wire that can carry successive electrical discharges. Recent research offers insights into this phenomenon. Scientists using the LOFAR telescope array discovered “lightning needles”: plasma channels about 300 feet long and 15 feet wide that can carry positive charges back to thunderclouds after an initial strike, creating ideal conditions for follow-up strikes.

When Lightning Strikes Seven Times

Perhaps the most compelling evidence against the myth that lightning can’t strike twice in the same place comes from the remarkable case of Roy Cleveland Sullivan, a park ranger in Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park. Between 1942 and 1977, Sullivan was struck by lightning seven different times, earning him the Guinness World Record for the most lightning strikes survived. Each time, the lightning found him in different locations, but the same person became a repeated target—defying both the literal and metaphorical interpretations of the saying.

The persistence of this myth highlights our tendency to find patterns and rules in nature’s seeming randomness. But understanding the true behavior of lightning is more than just a matter of scientific curiosity—it’s a safety issue. If you believe lightning won’t strike twice in the same place, you might make dangerous decisions during a thunderstorm. As the NOAA advises: “When thunder roars, go indoors.” This simple guidance acknowledges a scientific truth more reliable than any old saying: If you can hear thunder, you’re close enough to be struck by lightning, regardless of whether that spot has been struck before.