Where the saying actually came from
The phrase did not originate in a meteorology textbook. It grew out of rural folk observation, a rough rule of thumb from people who noticed that strikes seemed scattered and random across open fields. The saying’s origins trace back to folk observations that seemed reasonable enough, as people in rural areas noticed that lightning strikes appeared random and scattered.
Over time, that casual observation hardened into something people treated as scientific fact. The persistence of the myth illustrates how appealing phrases can outlive the observations that inspired them, with what began as a metaphor for rare coincidences evolving into supposed meteorological fact despite contradicting everything scientists observe about lightning behavior. It survived mostly because it made for a good metaphor about beating impossible odds, not because anyone checked it against a weather station’s records.
The physics behind repeat strikes
Lightning does not remember where it hit last time, and it does not avoid a spot out of some cosmic sense of fairness. Lightning doesn’t track where it last struck. It strikes wherever the conditions are most favorable. That favorability comes down to basic electrical behavior rather than luck.
Height, sharp points, and good conductivity all make an object more attractive to a developing lightning channel. Certain places are more likely to be struck by lightning again and again, and it all comes down to physics, since tall objects, sharp points, and good conductors attract lightning because they make it easier for electrical charges to jump, turning skyscrapers, radio towers, and even isolated trees into lightning magnets. A charged cloud base essentially searches for the shortest, easiest path to the ground, and a steel-framed tower or a lone tree on a ridge line often provides exactly that.
The Empire State Building: New York’s lightning magnet
No single structure debunks the old idiom quite as thoroughly as this one. You’ve probably heard the old saying “lightning never strikes the same place twice,” but this common phrase is a myth, since lightning often strikes the same place repeatedly, especially tall, pointy, and isolated objects, and according to NOAA, the Empire State Building is hit approximately 23 times a year. Other sources place the figure slightly higher, closer to 25 annual strikes based on the building’s own records.
What makes the numbers even more striking is how compressed they can be during a single storm. The Empire State Building is hit on average 25 times per year, according to the National Weather Service, and the iconic New York City landmark was struck eight times in 24 minutes during one storm. The building survives this constant bombardment because engineers designed it with that reality in mind rather than in spite of it.
Toronto’s CN Tower takes it even further
If the Empire State Building sounds impressive, the CN Tower in Toronto puts it to shame. Usually, the CN Tower is struck 75 to 80 times per year, getting hit that often with no ill effects, according to an Environment Canada meteorologist. That is roughly three times the strike rate of its famous American counterpart.
Some individual storms produce numbers that sound almost impossible. On one occasion the tower was struck 52 times in only 84 minutes, which works out to the equivalent of one strike every 97 seconds. Canadian meteorologists have used the tower directly to correct public misconceptions, with one government safety video stating plainly that the “never strikes twice” idea is “one of weather’s most famous legends, but it’s completely false,” pointing out that the CN Tower gets struck by lightning an average of 75 times per year.
One World Trade Center and other American skyscrapers
The pattern extends well beyond two famous landmarks. Using five years of strike data from the lightning detection company Vaisala, at 1,776 feet tall, the tallest building in the U.S., One World Trade Center in New York City, was struck 189 times between 2015 and 2020, though it wasn’t the most frequently hit building in the nation. That works out to nearly 40 strikes a year on one tower alone.
Engineers have essentially turned these buildings into oversized lightning rods by design. One WTC functions as a super-sized Faraday cage that distributes electrical current around the outside of the tower, with none of it passing through the interior space, and the current discharges into the bedrock below the tower and dissipates into the earth. Similar systems protect other tall structures across the country, which is precisely why direct hits rarely cause damage or injury inside.
Roy Sullivan: the human case study
If buildings can get struck repeatedly, so can people, at least in one extraordinary documented case. Park Ranger Roy C. Sullivan survived being struck by lightning seven times, and amazingly, he survived every single strike, each of which contained several million volts of electricity. He remains the Guinness World Record holder for the most confirmed lightning strikes survived by one person.
His encounters spanned decades of work outdoors in exposed mountain terrain. Guinness World Records lists Sullivan as the most frequently struck person on record, and as a ranger in Shenandoah National Park, he spent decades outdoors in exposed terrain. His case is often cited by meteorologists not as a freak coincidence but as a demonstration of how outdoor exposure and terrain can raise anyone’s odds far above the national average.
Lightning activity is actually increasing across the U.S.
Recent detection data adds another layer to the conversation, since overall lightning frequency has been rising rather than staying flat. Vaisala Xweather’s Annual Lightning Report revealed lightning activity in the U.S. surged to an eight-year high in 2025, with 252 million lightning strikes, a 20% increase from 2024. That surge means more opportunities for repeat strikes on the same vulnerable structures and landscapes.
Geography plays a major role in where those strikes concentrate. Texas topped the nation’s lightning count in 2025 with 47 million lightning events, thanks largely to the sheer size of the state, while by lightning density, Florida takes the lead with 305 lightning events per square mile, followed by Oklahoma with 253 events and Louisiana with 241. A new lightning capital even emerged that year, with Shady Grove, Oklahoma becoming 2025’s lightning capital with 3,005 lightning events per square mile, the first time in four years a lightning capital was named outside Texas or Florida.
Trees, ground, and natural terrain repeat strikes too
Skyscrapers get most of the attention, but the same physics applies to natural features. The ground itself can attract multiple strikes due to its composition, with factors such as moisture, mineral content, and the presence of metal influencing the likelihood of repeated strikes, since lightning seeks the path of least resistance and these ground conditions can create such paths. A ridge line, a lone hilltop tree, or a patch of mineral-rich soil can become a repeat target just as reliably as a steel tower.
This matters for anyone who spends time outdoors during storm season. Trees are filled with moisture, making them excellent conductors, and when lightning strikes a tree, the electrical current can travel down the trunk and explode outward into the ground, or even jump to anyone sheltering underneath, meaning a victim can be injured by both splintered wood and ground current. Meteorologists consistently point out that a recently struck tree offers no extra safety margin during a later storm.
Why the myth actually creates a safety risk
Beyond being factually wrong, the old saying can lead people to make genuinely risky decisions. The “never strikes twice” myth demonstrates how catchy phrases can distort risk assessment, since people who believe this saying might assume that recently struck areas are safer during subsequent storms, the opposite of what meteorological evidence suggests. That kind of false confidence is exactly what safety officials try to counter every storm season.
The standard guidance meteorologists actually recommend is far more concrete than any folk saying. The 30-30 rule advises people to seek shelter when thunder follows lightning by 30 seconds or less, and to wait 30 minutes after the last thunder before resuming outdoor activities. That rule applies everywhere, regardless of whether a location has ever been struck before.
The real odds of being struck by lightning
Despite dramatic footage of towers getting hit dozens of times a year, an individual person’s personal risk remains fairly low, though not negligible. The National Weather Service estimates your odds of being struck by lightning once during your life at 1 in 15,300. That figure accounts for a lifetime of exposure, not any single storm.
Fatalities have generally trended downward over recent decades thanks to better forecasting and awareness, though yearly totals still fluctuate. In 2024 there were 13 deaths, and in 2023 there were 14 deaths due to lightning, though in 2022 there were 19, and from 2009 to 2018 the U.S. averaged 27 lightning fatalities per year. Improved detection technology gets much of the credit, with one Vaisala scientist noting that improved lightning detection has helped decrease lightning related deaths by almost two thirds in the U.S.
Final thoughts
