Rare Lightning Strikes Detected Near the North Pole on Saturday

https://weather.com/news/news/2019-08-11-unusual-lightning-detected-near-north-pole

Several lightning strikes were detected near the North Pole on Saturday, something rarely seen in that region of the Arctic Ocean.

The lightning flashes were recorded within 300 miles of the North Pole, at 85 degrees north latitude, between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. AKDT, according to the National Weather Service in Fairbanks, Alaska. That's about 700 miles north of the Lena River Delta in Siberia.

Lightning does occur each summer north of the Arctic Circle (66.6 degrees north latitude), including occasionally over southern portions of the Arctic Ocean.

It's uncertain how many lightning strikes in history have occurred as far north as Saturday's event, but based on the worldwide lightning climatology map shown below, they are hardly seen in that region of the Arctic.

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I've spent more than a year of my life in the Arctic and Antarctic.

An Old Antarctic Hand told me back in the 1990's "If I see lightening here - we are fucked". Of course this story is about the Arctic.

But still.

We. Are. Fucked.