Drive on · 13 October 2026
Catatumbo, the storm behind the truck
Somewhere behind me, it's already lightning again. Catatumbo gets more of it than almost anywhere on Earth; some nights it barely stops.
I drove the causeway with the storm behind the truck. A few kilometres on, this is the same storm from a porch: kids wide awake, watching me from behind. A lightning bolt lasts less than a heartbeat, long enough to see, too fast to actually watch. The camera is the only thing here that caught it whole.
What is happening
Lake Maracaibo has the highest density of lightning measured anywhere on Earth. Storms build there on most nights of the year: cool air slides down from the Andes after dark and meets warm, wet air sitting over the lake, and the warm air is pushed up fast enough to build a thunderstorm.