The Lightning's Valley

An electric reportage of lightning storms around the Lugano region.

In Switzerland, Ticino has the highest number of lightning strikes per year.

This Lightning's Valley combines high instability due to high summer temperatures and large amounts of moisture flowing from the warm Mediterranean. In addition, the Alpine chain often develops weather conditions favorable to the formation of thunderstorms.

In the Valley of Lightning, there can be more than 20 days of thunderstorms per year.
Only in a handful of very small areas in other parts of Europe we find an equally high number of days with thunderstorms.
In Ticino there are averages ranging from 4 to 6 lightning strikes per square kilometer, clearly above the rest of the country.

The color assumed by lightning varies depending on the characteristics of the air mass that the lightning must pass through, before reaching our observation point, in this case Monte Brè.