Monsoon in India hurled almost 37,000 lightning bolts in a single day

Lightning from powerful spring storms that wash across India and Bangladesh pose a great risk to farmers, according to meteorologists.

India’s monsoon season began with an extraordinary outburst of lightning on Wednesday, as almost 37,000 bolts flashed across the sky or slammed into the ground in just 13 hours, according to meteorological instrument maker Vaisala Inc.

Apart from India and Bangladesh, other hot spots for lightning include US, Australia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Malaysia and Congo. (HT/Photo for representation)

Lightning from powerful spring storms that wash across India and neighbouring Bangladesh pose a great risk to farmers, said Ron Holle, a Vaisala meteorologist at the company’s lightning center in Tucson, Arizona. The most dangerous storms come in May.

Vaisala’s network tracks about 2 million strikes around the globe each day and about 2 billion annually, Holle said. Other hot spots for lightning include the southern and central US, the northern coast of Australia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Columbia, Sumatra, Malaysia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.