Dear Tom,
Are there any places in the United States that never have thunderstorms? In the world?
— Jesse Plemmons
Dear Jesse,
Every place in the United States experiences thunderstorms — even the Arctic regions of Alaska. Barrow, Alaska (3,055 miles northwest of Chicago), located on the shore of the Arctic Ocean, recorded a thunderstorm June 20, 2000.
Worldwide, there are thunderstorm-free locations, but other climatic conditions make them downright undesirable and even uninhabitable. The interior of Antarctica — bitterly cold (averaging less than 50 degrees below zero), permanently ice-covered and intensely dry — is the Earth's largest swath of absolutely thunderstorm-free real estate. Rain has never been observed at the South Pole station since weather observations began there in 1957.
