Overview
- Aldis/Blids, which released its 2025 lightning atlas Tuesday, ranked Kaufbeuren first with 1.23 ground flashes per square kilometer, while Kiel logged the fewest with six strikes and a density of 0.05.
- The nationwide count fell to about 99,930 earth strikes in 2025, roughly half of 2024, a drop experts link to a dry and at times cool May–September.
- Southern Germany dominated the rankings as the Alpine foreland favored storm formation, with Bavaria leading states by density at 0.43 per square kilometer and about 30,000 total strikes.
- Regional lists highlighted local hotspots and lows, including Schaumburg in Lower Saxony at 0.51 per square kilometer, Burgenlandkreis in Saxony-Anhalt at 0.31, Uckermark leading Brandenburg by raw counts as Brandenburg an der Havel posted the state’s top density at 0.22, and Saxony hitting a record low since 2006 with 4,601 strikes.
- The atlas counts only earth strikes and records each lightning flash once, so totals differ from datasets that include in-cloud discharges or tally multiple rapid strokes as separate events.