Most thunderstorms are one-off weather events, born and gone within a few hours. Above a single stretch of wetland where a Venezuelan river empties into a lake, storms build almost every night of the ...

At the southern end of Lake Maracaibo in western Venezuela, where the Catatumbo River empties into the water, the night sky performs a spectacle so reliable that sailors once used it as a lighthouse.

In a remote part of northwestern Venezuela, there is a crack and flash of lightning most nights of the year. Storms are so frequent and so dense that the region has earned its own name: Relámpago del ...