You think Seattle has it bad. How about a lightning storm that lasts for 10 hours a day, 160 times a year.

This almost permanent storm occurs over the marshlands where the Catatumbo River feeds into Lake Maracaibo and it is considered the greatest single generator of ozone in the planet, judging from the intensity of the cloud-to-cloud discharge and great frequency. The area sees an estimated 1,176,000 electrical discharges per year, with an intensity of up to 400,000 amperes, and visible up to 400 km away. This is the reason why the storm is also known as the Maracaibo Beacon as light has been used for navigation by ships for ages.

[via oddee]

Jay Leno played a partial clip of this video of cars sliding around on ice. There’s plenty more icy mayhem in the long version. It’s like watching bumper cars in slow motion, and perfect proof that nature can still kick your ass no matter of big of SUV you build. The video is from Poland so you’d think these drivers would have a concept of how slippery ice is, it’s not like it snowed in Arizona. Although if you visit Sun City where everyone is pushing 100 they pretty much drive that way already.

These ice storm pictures are crazy. It would be pretty hard to come up with a description for the level of suck that comes along with having your car incased in ice. Probably the only thing worse would be if you were still in it. I’m not a genius, but I’m pretty sure your defroster isn’t going to cut it. Two more ice storm pictures after the jump. Continue Reading