Lightning Strikes the Same Place Twice, Constantly

The Empire State Building gets struck by lightning about 20 to 25 times per year. For decades, people believed the old saying that lightning never strikes the same place twice. In reality, lightning has no preference for virgin ground. Tall structures, prominent landscape features, and conductive materials attract repeated strikes because electricity follows the path of least resistance. Roy Sullivan, a park ranger in Virginia, was struck by lightning seven times between 1969 and 1977 and survived each incident, though he eventually died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound unrelated to the strikes. The Empire State Building's frequency of strikes made it a valuable natural laboratory for scientists studying lightning behavior and electrical discharge. Modern buildings use lightning rods precisely because engineers know strikes will recur at the same vulnerable points. This understanding has transformed how we protect structures, from skyscrapers to transmission towers. The old superstition about lightning's randomness likely persisted because most people never experience a strike at all, let alone multiple strikes at identical locations. But for tall buildings and exposed peaks, repeated strikes aren't exceptions. They're predictable consequences of physics.