This lake gets thunderstorms on roughly 297 nights a year.

The part that checks out ↘

It really happened.

Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela has the highest density of lightning recorded anywhere on Earth. Sixteen years of satellite observations show night-time thunderstorms developing over it on about 297 days a year, as mountain, lake and sea breezes converge over its warm water. Locals have a name for it: the Relámpago del Catatumbo.

Lightning feels like the definition of random. Here it is almost scheduled — anchored to one place by geography, predictable enough to have a name.