The Lightning of the Catatumbo is a located singular meteorological phenomenon to the south of the Lake of Maracaibo in Venezuela whose name comes from the Catatumbo river.
This phenomenon is characterized for being an almost continued lightning, that takes place in clouds of great vertical development forming electrical arcs between the 2 and the 10 kilometers of height (or more) as the tradewinds penetrate in the surface of the Lake in hours of afternoon (when the evaporation is greater) and they are forced to promote by the mountainous system of Perijá and the mountain range of Venezuelan the $andes. So that the origin of this phenomenon is in the orographic effect of these mountain ranges that lock up and restrain to winds of the northeast taking place clouds of great vertical development, concentrated mainly in the river basin of the Catatumbo river. This phenomenon is very easy to see from hundreds of kilometers of distance, that is to say, from the own lake (where clouds usually do not appear during the night) reason why also it is known like the Light of Maracaibo, since the boats which they furrowed the zone could sail during the night without problems at the time of navigation to candle. It has an annual occurrence of 140 to 160 nights, lasting up to 10 hours per night and taking place up to 280 unloadings per hour. In addition, these electrical storms anywhere in the world produce a 10% of all the generated ozone layer reason why the lightning of the Catatumbo can be considered as one of the main individual regenerators of the ozone layer in the planet because it produces a approximate one of 1.176.000 atmospheric electrical unloadings.

Source: Wikipedia