Mother Nature's Greatest Light Show

Alan Highton

Other than a bright, sunny beach in the Caribbean, you may have never thought weather would be the primary reason for travel.  But the light show you'll find over the Catatumbo River in Northwest Venezuela is something you can't find anywhere else in the world.

It's a thunderstorm like you've never seen before - with an average of about 40 thousand lightning strikes per night.  Anvil crawlers (cloud to cloud lightning) and bolts that reach down to the ground light up the night sky for
hours.  And while locals have grown up thinking the phenomenon is normal, it's started to draw visitors from around the world.

ABC News ran a story on the lightning back in 2011, which is how I first learned about the Catatumbo Lightning.  It reports that in early 2010, the lightning - which had previously been as reliable as Old Faithful - stopped for months.  The story is told from the perspective of locals in a poor water town on Lake Maracaibo, at the mouth of the Catatumbo River.  It's well worth watching, but since I work for a CBS affiliate at the time I'm writing this blog post, I will just leave the link above.

Alan Highton

One man, Alan Highton, lives with the indigenous people and has started a tour company for visitors out of Merida.  The town is built out into the lake on tin and wooden stilts, and people get around by boat.  As a scientist, living on water in lightning sounds dangerous (water conducts electricity).  But they've managed to make it work for centuries.

In March of 2015, The Guardian writer Alasdair Baverstock had the chance to visit Venezuela and report on the lightning first hand.  Like the ABC journalists, he met with Highton for a tour.  He says they stayed in the lakeside fishing town of Ologa.  Locals were amazed he traveled so far to see what they watch from their hammocks every night.

Short from plagiarizing, there's no way to describe the lightning (or the locals) better than his first hand experience, and I highly recommend the article.  He even offers tips for travelers... which I hope to take advantage of myself one day.

Jorge Silva

As for what makes the lightning happen, there are a lot of theories.  It could have to do with the landscape between the river and nearby mountains.  It could be from the low pressure systems that regularly sits over the area, creating lift and instability.  It could be from the dark waters, which hold an unusually large amount of oil and methane.  Or it could be a combination of many things.  The truth is, nobody is really sure.

Regardless of why the lightning happens, you can't deny that the result is mesmerizing.  For those of you with an adventurous heart, I hope you make the trek down some day and send me a picture.  Or maybe, if I'm lucky, I'll be there, too!

Want to know more?  Leave your comments here, find me on Facebook and Twitter, or email me at rkaye@wmbd.com.


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