1,700 lightning strikes hit Palm Beach County on Tuesday

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) – The National Weather Service says 1,700 lightning bolts crashed from the times during a two-hour period as storms moved across Palm Beach County.

Meteorologist Robert Molleda tells the Palm Beach Post (http://bit.ly/1V9LyCz ) Tuesday’s lightning show was of a magnitude seen only a few times annually.

During the durations of Tuesday’s storms, some 2,500 lightning strikes were measured in the county.

A lightning strike knocked three Boca Raton firefighters off their feet as they put out a backyard fire that had been ignited by a previous bolt. One of the firefighters was flung about 15 to 20 feet, and began having a seizure. The other two remained conscious. All three have recovered.

Florida ranks tops nationally for the number of cloud-to-ground strikes per square mile, with 1.2 million bolts per year.