Lightning strikes the Arctic: What will it mean for the Far North?

A massive thunderstorm produced more than a thousand flashes of lightning, including a record-breaking bolt that hit just 32 miles from the North Pole , the closest strike ever recorded.

Lightning strikes are a significant cause of wildfires, which can devastate landscapes and release planet-warming carbon into the air.

The precise impacts that climate change will have on thunderstorms and lightning remain a matter of scientific debate.

From 2010 to 2020 , warmer summers saw more lightning hitting above the 65th parallel (around the middle of Alaska ) The hottest year in this stretch, 2019 (which was globally 0.93 degrees Celsius warmer than the 1951-1980 average) saw three times more lightning in the Arctic as a fraction of the global total than the coolest year , 2011 .

Researchers flying planes over Colorado and Oklahoma to study the air during lightning storms were startled to find that strikes produced massive amounts of oxidants.

These oxidants are known to scrub away methane, acting like a kind of atmospheric cleanser.

At the same time, atmospheric methane increased by about 15 parts per billion in 2020 — one of the biggest annual spikes ever seen.