Between 140 and 160 days a year - 10 hours in a row, above the place where the river Catatumbo flows into Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela, in the sky is going spectacular sight: a natural "light show" in which lightning appear up to 280 times in just one hour, which means that every 10 to 15 seconds a bolt of lightning can be seen.

Known as "Relampago del Catatumbo" this storm has been going on forever, that is, as long as human memory goes.

This storm was mentioned even in 1597 in "La Dragontea" poem from the poet Lope de Vega. De Vega in a poem wrote about the army that tried to occupy city of Maracaibo in 1595, and of course about the powerful lightning bolts that were constantly illuminated the army and revealed their position to defenders of the city. A similar scenario took place on July 24, 1823, when the lightning in Venezuela's civil war lit up and revealed positions of Spanish warships.

Lightnings that this storm produces are visible from a distance of about 400 kilometers, and are so reliable that are used as ships navigation aid, and are known among sailors as "Lighthouse of Maracaibo." What is particularly interesting is that this storm almost cannot be heard.

It is still unknown why this regular natural phenomenon is happening precisely in this area. One theory suggests that the ionized methane gas is rising from Catatumbo River and is colliding with storm clouds coming from the Andes, and thus creates the perfect conditions for the storm.

With a total of about 1.2 million lightnings per year, Relampago del Catatumbo is considered largest producer of ozone in the world. When lightnings are piercing through the air, they produce nitric oxide, which is broken by Sun and is turned into ozone.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/venezuelas-mysterious-catatumbo-lightning-phenomenon-vanishes-months-reappears/story?id=14120203

http://www.stormchaser.ca/Lightning/Catatumbo/Catatumbo.html