Thunderstruck: Which Michigan City Tops Lightning Strikes?

What's the old saying? "Lightning never strikes in the same place twice." Right?  Michigan's lightning capital can offer a striking argument for why that's false. Vaisala, a data instrument company, has released its annual lightning report, and according to it, one Michigan city had 113 lightning strikes per square kilometer in one year.

Related: Michigan's Tornado Vulnerability: Revealing Riskiest Counties In 2024

If that seems like a lot, it isn't when you compare it to the rest of the United States' more 'flashy' lightning capitals. Homeland, Georgia, received a whopping 316 lightning strikes per kilometer, which isn't even the nation's highest. That honor goes to Four Corners, Florida, at 474 per square kilometer.

The Lightning Capital of Michigan

Sitting a few miles north of Mt. Pleasant, in Isabella County, sits the village of Rosebush, Michigan. According to Vaisala's annual report, this village of less than 400 people sees more lightning than any other area in the state, with 113 lightning strikes per square mile.

Get our free mobile app

The village's footprint is less than 600 acres, so to consider this tiny area to be Michigan's lightning hotspot would have to be intimidating to its residents. With that in mind, I called Rosebush's most elevated business, the Star of the West Milling Company, with their towering grains silos.

Jeff Norris has been with Star of the West for several years and was unaware that Rosebush was Michigan's lightning capital. I asked Jeff if he'd seen any of the mill equipment struck, but he said that the tree across the street was the only thing he knew of that had been hit by lightning, and that was 10 to 15 years ago.

Related: Life Near a Michigan Wind Turbine: ‘You can feel it in your body'

According to Vaisala's report, the area surrounding Rosebush has a very high population of wind turbines, which are basically giant targets for lightning bolts. So if you find yourself in Rosebush, Michigan on a rainy day, do your best not to look like a wind turbine, and stop in ask Jeff if he's seen any lightning. Tell him I said hi.