Nearly 25,000 lightning strikes streaked the French sky on Monday in just 6 hours

In just 6 hours on the evening of Monday April 8, 24,514 lightning discharges were detected throughout France, the Kéraunos observatory noted on its website, in a report dated 11:20 p.m.

Electrical activity was recorded in the north-east of France as well as on a diagonal from the Hautes-Pyrénées to the Ardennes. Numerous lightning strikes notably struck the Somme and Pas-de-Calais on Monday evening, report France Bleu Picardie and France Bleu Nord.

Pas-de-Calais was the department most affected by the storm which crossed part of northern France on Monday evening. Thus, between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m., Kéraunos recorded 2,803 lightning discharges throughout the department, with a peak in storm activity between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. This storm was accompanied by heavy rainfall, so much so that in Ternois, several municipalities such as Héricourt and Croisette were affected by hailstorms. Furthermore, in the North, 1,258 lightning strikes were recorded.

More than 2,000 lightning strikes fell on the Somme department in a single evening on Monday, according to statistics from Kéraunos. In just one hour, between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m., the observatory even recorded more than a thousand lightning strikes (1,116 lightning strikes). The town of Airaines experienced the greatest electrical activity Monday evening with 46 lightning strikes.

The storm also hit Oise and Aisne on Monday evening, but to a lesser extent. At the peak of activity, 475 lightning bolts crossed the Oise after 6 p.m. and 136 for the Aisne after 10 p.m.