Science

Science myths and claims about the brain, physics, space, weather and the body's everyday workings.

Does lightning never strike the same place twice?

Illustration of a small town under dark storm clouds where three lightning bolts all strike the tip of one very tall, thin spire while the low houses and trees around it are untouched

False. Lightning hits the same places again and again: the National Weather Service says the Empire State Building is struck about 23 times a year. Here is why tall, isolated things keep getting hit, and where the old saying came from.