Annual lightning strikes on New Zealand and surrounding waters

Lightning is the discharge of electricity from thunderstorms and can occur within a cloud, between clouds, or between a cloud and the ground.

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The data was aggregated into annual counts by Figure.NZ in order to be processed easily.

The New Zealand Lightning Detection Network (NZLDN) owned by Transpower and operated by MetService records cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning strikes. A network of 10 sensors around the country detects lightning over the New Zealand land mass and a short distance out to sea (approximately 500km). These sensors detect the polarity of the electrical discharge, time, and current strength. Lightning strike location is determined by triangulating the data from two or more lightning sensors; in general, location accuracy is approximately 1km.