Over this bay off the Caribbean Sea in north­west­ern Venezuela, light­ning storms take over the skies almost every night of the year. This weath­er phe­nom­e­non is known as Cata­tum­bo Light­ning, named for the riv­er that flows into the lake. Lake Mara­cai­bo has the high­est con­cen­tra­tion of light­ning on Earth thanks to a com­bi­na­tion of heat, humid­i­ty, air cur­rents and the moun­tain­ous land­scape. At night, light­ning strikes Lake Mara­cai­bo about 28 times a minute for up to nine hours.