Every spring there is a dramatic increase in the number and strength of storm systems.
Scientists at NASA are working to understand how these storms develop and how to better predict them. One of the supercells over Stroud, Oklahoma produced incredible levels of lightning activity. A typical thunderstorm produces a few flashes of lightning per minute, but this supercell's lightning rate was over 90 flashes per minute. This is one of the highest numbers of lightning flashes ever observed in a storm. This is caused by downdrafts that spawn the tornadoes.