Flashes of lightning illuminate the sky over Nagykanizsa, Hungary, late at night on Monday. 

Lightning is the most spectacular part of a storm, but it is also the most dangerous. 

A flash of lightning can heat the air around it to about 27,800 deg C – five times hotter than the sun’s surface – and each bolt can contain up to one billion volts of electricity.

About 2,000 people around the world are killed by lightning every year. Nine out of 10 survive a strike. 

Singapore has one of the highest lightning rates in the world and high levels of lightning activity usually take place during the inter-monsoon period between late March and May and October and November. 

While displays of lightning are electrifying to watch, stay safe by sheltering inside a building. Stay away from open spaces, do not stand under a tree and never walk in a storm carrying an umbrella. 

If you feel the hair on your head or body start to stand, a lightning strike is near, so go to a safe place as quickly as you can. If there is no safe place nearby, get as close to the ground as you can.

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