Here there is no cell service, internet or electricity. No corner stores, restaurants or cars. The only means of transport is boat and there are no other signs of civilization in sight. The day has been beautiful, the sights amazing, but as the sky begins to take on orange hues, you turn in early, slipping into the bunk beds of a shack you're renting

A few short hours later your alarm goes off. It's midnight. As you open your eyes the sky lights up in every direction and the barely audible crack of thunder rumbles across the surface of the lake. And this is the reason you're here in the middle of nowhere. 

You get up and go to the edge of the lake and watch as strike after strike lightning flashes again and again and again, not even giving you time to catch your breath between each blinding arc. And you stand there enthralled, the storm's show persistent and vigorous, only beginning to tire as the sky begins to lighten, six hours later.

As the sun rises you turn in, you need to get some sleep, because it's going to happen again tonight.

You've never seen anything like it in the world. And that's because there is nothing else like it in the world.

This is Catatumba lightning. The only place in the world that receives roughly 1.6 million lightning strikes a year.

What Is It?

1.6 million lightning strikes is hard to imagine. What does that even look like?

According to NASA, lightning can occur from 140-297 days a year, peaking in the September/October. On those days these strikes can happen for 6-10 hours, with lightning striking 16-40 times a minute, being most active between 7pm - 5am. Sometimes the storms come with violent winds or torrential rain, and sometimes you just get the light show.

NASA recorded an average rate of 233 flashes per square kilometer per year. The persistent flashes of the lightning are so strong that they are clearly visible from 250 miles (400 kilometres) away. And maybe what's most eerie is that depending on where you're standing on the lake, you might not even hear the thunder.

The release discharges a zigzag of electrical energy strong enough to light 100 million bulbs. Ten minutes of Catatumbo Lightning could illuminate all of South America. 

How?

The reality is, we're not 100% sure what causes the Catatumbo lightning. But there are many theories, though at the heart of them all is the area's unique geography. The home of Catatumbo lightning is Lake Maracaibo, located in the Maracaibo basin of the Zulia state of Venezuela.

The basin is hugged by mountains except for its northernmost edge which opens into the Venezuela Gulf. These creates a humid, lush environment with great diversity of flora and fauna. 

The Catatumbo lightning itself can be found on and around Lake Maracaibo, a body of water that takes up the bulk of the Maracaibo basin. While called a lake, Maracaibo would technically be an estuary as one side has a direct channel to the gulf of Venezuela, making the contents of the lake brackish. But if it were a lake it would be the largest in South America (with an area of 13,210 km/8208 miles), and one of the oldest on Earth thought have formed 36 million years ago

Lake Maracaibo possesses highly oxygenated waters which makes it rich in algae, and in turn fish, making it very biologically diverse. It is home to clams, blue crabs, shrimp and other aquatic products, and is also home to two endangered aquatic mammals, the West Indian manatee and the Amazon river dolphin. About 145 species of fish inhabit the lake. The lake stays warm year around, temperatures averaging (28°–31°C / 82.4-87.8 F)

With the basin and lake being warm and humid year round, it creates the ideal scenario for thunderstorms. You just need to add wind

Lightning activity is relatively rare during the day except for over a small area of the lake in the afternoon. During the day, radiative heating by the sun causes the land surrounding the lake to become hotter than the lake, inducing a lake-breeze circulation over Lake Maracaibo. In addition, the sides of the mountains warm up more rapidly than the valley, thereby inducing a valley breeze accompanied by subsidence over the lake [5]. Storms are typically spawned where cold air hits hot air, and as the day goes into the night the mountains and land rapidly cool, creating a rush of turbulent winds when combined become electric

It's theorized that it's not just the heat and cold, but also the humidity that play a factor in making this weather. In 2016 a study found that they were able to forecast lightning on the lake up to a few months in advance based on activity of the local jet streams and winds

There have been many people that have studied this event and a lot of this is speculative, but this seems to be the most commonly agreed up on theory

Other theories have been:

• Uranium in the bedrock
• Methane produced by the swamps and the massive oil deposits in the area

Misinformation

There is a lot of misinformation about the lightning, things like the lightning being special or coming in different colors or varieties. What's special about the lightning is the frequency and predictability, the strikes themselves are garden variety lightning

As for the colors, the lightning itself is your standard white electric light, but the atmosphere is what impacts the colors. When the sun is setting/rising you will see strikes that appear more orange, pink, or red where in the dead of night it will look more purple or blue. If the storm is accompanied by rain it may look more green. Most frequently the lightning is viewed by visitors and tourists from the south side of the lake, creating a huge distance between the viewer and the lightning, sometimes so much so the thunder can't even be heard. The level of humidity in the air, the time of day, all of these are factors in how the lightning will appear. Also since the lightning is most active at night, how it is captured on camera will vary dramatically on the type of camera and the settings used.

Ozone

But the cause of the storms aren't the only thing that has been studied, but also the effect.

As we know, lightning generates ozone the natural chemical compound that makes up the barrier between our atmosphere and space. Some theorize having so much lightning in the area must have an impact on the ozone layer. Venezuelan environmentalist Erik Quiroga believes the storms could help repair the damaged ozone layer and is campaigning for the entire ecosystem that produces the storms to be recognized as a Unesco World Heritage site. [9][2][3]

But not everyone agrees. According to researcher Joaquín Díaz, the Catatumbo Lightning Strikes do indeed produce ozone, but it is highly unlikely that this unstable gas reaches the stratosphere because it tends to transform into another compound within hours. 

Another research has said: "The time it would take for the ozone produced by the Catatumbo Lightning to rise to the ozone layer is at least six months , so we don't see a viable mechanism for it to contribute to the regeneration of the planet's ozone layer," says Ángel Muñoz, also a researcher at the CMC.

History

A common question that comes up is how long has this been happening? And that turns out to be a very complex question. If we go according to written accounts, it gets messy.

1595?

For the longest time the earliest recording was thought to be a 1597 poem by Lope de Vega called "La Dragontea". It recounts Francis Drake's attempt to raid Maracaibo Lake in 1595 and says that he was forced to abandon his sneak attack when lightning betrayed his ships to the Spanish garrison. It's a fun story, one often recounted by locals and one you will see written in nearly every article on the topic of the lightning.

Dr. Ángel Vicente Muñoz-García, a retired Professor from University of Zulia is one of the strongest voices against this story and with good reason. I am going to call him Dr. MG going forward. Dr MG has spent the last many decades reviewing every written account that is said to be about the lightning, and ultimately calls bullshit on the whole tale. Mostly. He wrote a very extensive and thorough paper that walks the reader through how he came to is conclusion, but I am going to summarize it for you.

Near all documents that talk about the lightning reference the "historic" event of Francis Drake turning tail and running, but seemingly the only source for that is this poem. Which may not be about the lightning or this place at all

The poem does contain a set of lines saying (translated from Spanish) "the flames that discover, what the wings of night cover."

The flames, by some were though to refer to the lightning, but Francis Drake never attacked Maracaibo. Dr MG would review all documentation of Drake's assault on Venezuela and nowhere does it say he came to Maracaibo, and why would he? He was attacking ports to steal wealth from the Spaniards. The lake, while has a handful of small communities, none that would be worth his time as it's mostly fishing communities. But like a very long game of telephone, someone somewhere cited the poem as a source and then that was cited so on and so forth that this myth has become intrinsically tied to these events.

Dr MG believes the poem is not about Maracaibo and that instead is talking about Drake's assault on the port of San Juan. Drake had pursued a Spanish galleon to the port, the city knowing Drake was coming used barges to block entry into the port. Drake decides to light the boats on fire, only to realize that was a dumb fucking mistake because now everyone could see him and he retreats.

So no, the 1597 poem is not referring to the lightning

1823?

The next written account commonly cited is the lightning's involvement in the fight against the Spanish in the independence war. it is credited with helping independence fighters defeat a Spanish fleet in 1823. Though I have had a hard time finding additional evidence for this

1841

In 1841 Italian brigadier Agustín Codazzi, the first geographer of Venezuela, states:

"Another luminous phenomenon known as the Maracaibo lantern is a light that can be seen every night on the seaward side, as well as inland, more than 40 leagues away. The location where this phenomenon occurs is a forested, swampy, and uninhabited area on the banks of the Zulia River and near its mouth. It is like a continuous flash of lightning, and its position, such that, situated almost on the meridian of the mouth of Lake Maracaibo, it guides navigators like a beacon."

1944

"Every night from this camp we could see the curious phenomenon of the "Catatumbo lights," brilliant yellow flashes flickering across the sky, like sheet lightning without thunder. They are said to be caused by-some form of gas emanating from the Catatumbo river, in the country of the Motilones Indians"

J Hanbury Tracy 

Ultimately, from what has been discovered there are few literary mentions of the lightning, making it hard to determine how long this has been happening. And this be because to the locals, this is just normal and don't realize that what is happening is unique. Of course there's myth and legend, but we'll get there

Scientific Expeditions

Despite these mentions it would seem that earliest, undisputed scientific expedition to study the lightning would be Andres Zavrotsky, a Russian mathematician of all things.

Zavrotsky would flee Russia after his family faced persecution and was dispersed by the Soviet regime. Ultimately ending up in Venezuela where he would become a professor and some time in the 1960s would set out on an expedition to study the Catatumbo lightning. 

Since then there have been many more studies as the world opened up and more became aware of the strange phenomenon, with local universities and even NASA investigating

Cultural Impact

As discussed, written accounts only go so far, oral accounts though is another thing entirely. There are several tribes native to the region, each with their own stories

The Indigenous People

A lot of resources tend to refer to the indigenous people as monolith, most quotes say something along the line of "indigenous people say". Like much of the world over the indigenous people of Venezuela are many and incredibly diverse, with differing beliefs, practices and even languages.

Another thing about many of Venezuela's indigenous people is there is very little that has been published on them, at least in English. So there is very few primary sources to refer to so a lot of what I did find was vague references with little to no attribution. I would love to be able to talk more about their relationship and beliefs with the lightning, as the few indications I have found seems to suggest great cultural significance to those that live in the area.

We also have to acknowledge the impacts of colonization. Anthropologic evidence seems to indicate that people have been living in Venezuela for up to 15,000 years.

But in 1498 Christopher Columbus would "discover" Venezuela and in 1522, Spain would begin a concerted effort to colonize the region. In 1528 King Charles V gave a German family permission to colonize and explore the region, all while they searched for El Dorado the golden city. The "ownership" of the region that would become known as Venezuela (as called as indigenous homes on stilts reminded Europeans of Vienna, so they named it Venezuela which means little Vienna)

Colonization was not a peaceful process, there are reports that the colonizers made mutually beneficial deals with the locals and "helped them" but whether or not the indigenous people felt the same way, we may never know, but from other examples from all around the world, my hopes aren't high.

Colonizers wanted the rare resources of the area, chief among them being gold. I read in a couple places that the Spaniards believed that gold could be found where lightning struck, so there's a rumor they were very interested in Catatumbo, but I have not been able to find any other sources saying this.

The colonizers stole land, forced the indigenous people to help clear it and made mines all across the region. And this hunt for resources after world war 2 when it was discovered the area had massive oil deposits.

All that to say, unfortunately I only found a handful of things referring to the indigenous relationship and perception of the lightnings, and the details are sparse, a lot has probably been lost to time due to colonization. so here's what I got:

For centuries, the indigenous people of Northwestern Venezuela called the phenomenon "rib a-ba" or "river of fire in the sky."

The indigenous Bari from the western mountains of the Sierra de Perijá, located about 150 km away on the Colombian border, have witnessed these nightly electrical storms for hundreds of years. The Bari believe the lightning is created by the spirits of ancient ancestors who take the form of celestial fireflies. The Wari tribe defines it as "the concentration of millions of cocuyos [fireflies] that gather every night in Catatumbo to pay tribute to the fathers of creation," 

while the Yucpas and Wayuu attribute it to the presence of the spirits of the fallen guajiros that shine as a kind of message, in addition to considering it the "eternal glow in the heights." [1]

The aboriginal Añú [es] people who lived on the banks of the lake refer to it as Coquivacoa. We also know that the tribes of Wayuu, Caquetíos, and Quiriquires also lived in the area though I did not find anything specific mentioning them. 

"In the midst of this celestial ballet, I couldn't help but be reminded of the ancient legends that had been passed down through generations. The lightning was like the fiery breath of a dragon, a guardian of the land and its people. It was a symbol of both destruction and renewal, a reminder that nature was both benevolent and merciless."

Is It Forever?

Which brings us to a question some have been scared to ask, is it possible that one day the lightning will stop?

As I mentioned I tried hard to find the oldest references possible but there was so little to be found, at least in english or that I was able to query with key spanish names, phrases or words. So the earliest we can say with certainty is 1841, but legends do seem to indicate it goes back much further. But there was a time where the locals worried they had lost them forever when during the period of January to March 2010 not a single storm appeared.  This created an immense fear

"This is unprecedented. In recorded history we have not had such a long stretch without lightning," said Erik Quiroga, an environmentalist and leading authority on the Relampago de Catatumbo, or Catatumbo Lightning. 

Fishermen in the village of Congo Mirador, a collection of wooden huts on stilts at the phenomenon's epicentre, are puzzled and anxious by its absence. "It has always been with us," said Edin Hernandez, 62. "It guides us at night, like a lighthouse. We miss it."

Quiroga worries that when rains return the lightning may not recover its former glory. It was dwindling in frequency and force even before the drought, probably because deforestation and agriculture had clogged the Catatumbo river and several lagoons with silt.

"This is a unique gift and we are at risk of losing it," said Quiroga, who has led scientific teams to its epicentre. He has lobbied Venezuelan authorities to protect the area and the United Nations to recognise it as a world heritage site. A Unesco spokeswoman said there were no plans to do so because electrical storms did not have a "site".

While the lightning did return after 3 months, it was definitely scared some people. We still don't know exactly why these storms happen but the best guess for this sudden stop is a severe drought that had hid that area during that time, seeming to indicate a connection with precipitation

Turns out though that this isn't the only time this has happened. In 1906 after a catastrophic 8.8-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Ecuador and Colombia unleashed a tsunami, the lightning ceased for three weeks 

Climate change could be a threat to this natural wonder

Pollution of the Lake

But that's not all. As I mentioned Lake Maracaibo is one of the oldest lakes on Earth. And because of this age is one of the world's largest fossil fuel reserves, dwarfing those of Saudi Arabia.

Today, more than 15,000 miles of oil and gas pipelines crisscross the lake floor. Oil leaks out of corroded pipes, and puddles of iridescent rainbows surface. "This used to be one of the top oil producers in the world," Díaz-Lobatón said. Political disorder and the recent, depressed oil market has slowed production, but at its height 90 percent of Venezuela's economy came from oil. And no matter the productivity level, real and false lightning alarms have hampered about 10 percent of its yearly extraction. "Lightning storms hinder a significant amount of production. The model could help address this,". 

The oil is a never-ending disaster, one that local fishermen are constantly trying to combat. They have no fancy equipment or technology, just manual labor and sheer determination. Turning to metal rakes to pull the black sludge from the edges of the lake

The oil has huge impacts, it blots out natural sunlight, preventing marine vegetation from getting the light it needs, dying or not growing as abundant, which impacts the creatures that feed on. Then there's the toxicity of the oil which suffocates and poisons the natural life in the water, so much so that many of the fish have become so contaminated that fisherman are being forced out to the ocean to catch cleaner fish.

As things die and decay in the water (both flora and fauna) they release nitrogen and phosphorous into the water, which do a number on the existing ecosystem but also leads to the growth of green algae and duck weed. Like the oil these plants cover the surface of the water, limiting sunlight getting through and absorbing nutrients.

"It's everywhere. When we go deep in the lake and pick up our nets, they are fully covered in oil from the bottom of the lake," says Ender Bermúdez, a 56-year-old fisher

But these are far from the only threats to the lake, garbage is found along its shores

In 2023, Venezuela developed a conservation strategy

The Lake Maracaibo rescue commission carries out activities from Thursdays to Sundays in every nearby municipality, including: clearing oil and plastic, refurbishing water treatment facilities, replacing deteriorated oil pipelines; and raising public awareness about the lake's importance and conservation. 

The work already has been done has shown marked improvements to the lake and the surrounding area and they're hopeful they'll be able to combat the pollution and take back the lake and its lightning that has become so important to them.

If You Want to Visit

Travelbegins at 40 Tips

• Bring insect repellent, sun block, drinking water, a torch each, extra batteries and/or a power bank, waterproof jackets and some snacks.
• If you want to take good photographs bring everything you need for night shots.
• Get ready to live without WiFi and go off-grid – you know you can do it.
• Be prepared for a country that is in a severe economic recession.
• Prices quoted to you before your trip might not be the same as on arrival. Venezuela is suffering rapid inflation and a shortage of paper money. Unless the locals increase their prices they might make a loss hosting you.
• Take plenty of US dollar notes, especially 20s, 10s, and lots of 5s and 1s

Alan Highton has been giving tours specifically around the catatumbo lightning for decades at this point, his tour company is called CoCo Light and nearly every article I read about someone visiting the area was led by him.

Catatumbo Camp was founded by Alan Highton, based on his experience as a guide since 1987. Alan is recommended in the principal guide books on Venezuela.

The object of Catatumbo Camp is to promote tourism and humanitarian efforts towards the villages of the Catatumbo Delta, Venezuela. https://cocolight.com/home.html 

Full Source List

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catatumbo_lightning 
• https://www.fogonazos.es/2007/06/catatumbo-everlasting-storm.html 
• https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rel%C3%A1mpago_del_Catatumbo 
• https://www.nasa.gov/missions/trmm/earths-new-lightning-capital-revealed/ 
• https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/bams/97/11/bams-d-14-00193.1.xml 
• https://web.archive.org/web/20160305205225/https://www.agenciadenoticias.luz.edu.ve/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4965&Itemid=151 
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Maracaibo 
• https://www.volunteerlatinamerica.com/blog/posts/catatumbo-lightning-in-venezuela 
• https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20140912-in-venezuela-natures-most-electrifying-lightning-show 
• https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/news/feature-articles/maracaibo-beacon 
• https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/science/lake-maracaibo-ecosystem 
• https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/mar/05/venezuela-lightning-el-nino 
• https://web.archive.org/web/20161103234021/https://cmcint.atavist.com/dislates-y-disparates-relampagos-catatumbo#chapter-1278283
• abcnews.go.com/International/venezuelas-mysterious-catatumbo-lightning-phenomenon-vanishes-months-reappears/story?id=14120203#.UOYHp3e_E_w  
• https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/news/feature-articles/maracaibo-beacon 
• https://historyoftheworlds.com/2024/10/01/whispers-of-the-catatumbo-a-dance-of-lightning-and-legends/ 
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar%C3%AD_people
• https://www.travelbeginsat40.com/2018/11/catatumbo-lightning-storms-venezuela/ 
• https://cocolight.com/tour-english.html 
• https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/news/feature-articles/maracaibo-beacon