Catatumbo Lightning (Faro del Catatumbo)

The Catatumbo Lightning (Spanish Relámpago del Catatumbo) is an atmospheric phenomenon in Venezuela. It occurs strictly in an area located over the mouth of the Catatumbo River where it empties into Lake Maracaibo. The frequent, powerful flashes of lightning over this relatively small area are considered to be the world's largest single generator of tropospheric ozone. This refers to ozone that does not replenish stratospheric ozone layer.

It originates from a mass of storm clouds that create a voltaic arc at more than 5 km of height, during 140 to 160 nights a year, 10 hours per day and up to 280 times per hour. It occurs over and around Lake Maracaibo, typically over a swamp area that forms where the Catatumbo River flows into the Venezuelan lake.

After appearing continually for centuries, the lightning was not seen for several months between January and April 2010, apparently due to a drought, raising fears that it may have been extinguished permanently.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catatumbo_lightning

From my Dad’s book Elementary motherland (Patria elemental).

Catatumbo Lightning (Faro del Catatumbo)

At the top of Tasajero Hill the hands

of the night weave and interweave luminous threads.

The Catatumbo Lightning embroiders

volatile threads of light in the warm night

of the valley.

The jungle emits its message. And in the flash of lightning  

and the thunder it seems to remember the strength

of the native indigenous merely surviving.

The splendorous and eternal shine of a

decaying civilisation.

The violent lights adorn the nights

of the summer skies.