“The Empire State Building is struck by lightning about 25 times every year.”

• The U.S. National Weather Service uses the Empire State Building as its standard counterexample to the 'lightning never strikes twice' myth, stating the building is hit an average of roughly two dozen times a year (commonly given as 23) — statistically indistinguishable from the claim's 'about 25.'
• NOAA/National Severe Storms Laboratory educational material likewise notes that tall, pointed, isolated structures are struck repeatedly and cites skyscrapers such as the Empire State Building as being hit many times per year.
• The Empire State Building's own operators and official visitor materials have long publicized the figure of roughly 23–25 lightning strikes per year, and the building's mast is fitted with lightning protection specifically because strikes are routine.
• The building has a documented scientific history as a lightning laboratory: GE engineer Karl B. McEachron instrumented the tower in the 1930s–40s and recorded scores of strikes over several seasons (published in the Journal of the Franklin Institute, 1939), the original empirical basis for the ~20+ strikes/year figure.
• Physics supports the frequency: a ~1,450 ft (with mast) grounded steel-framed structure acts as a preferential attachment point for upward-connecting leaders in a region (NYC) averaging roughly 20–30 thunderstorm days per year.
• The claim is hedged with 'about,' which is the appropriate framing for a long-term average that varies year to year.

• The single most frequently cited authoritative number is 23, not 25; 'about 25' is a slight rounding upward, though within the normal range quoted across sources (23–25, occasionally 'up to 100' in looser popular accounts).
• The figure is a long-term average, not an annual constant — individual years can see far fewer or far more strikes (the building has reportedly been hit multiple times in a single storm), so 'every year' overstates regularity if read literally.
• The canonical count traces largely to mid-20th-century instrumentation and to the building's own promotional material; there is no widely published recent peer-reviewed tally using modern networks (NLDN/Vaisala) to confirm the current rate.
• Counting conventions matter: a single lightning 'flash' can contain several return strokes, so 'strikes' can be tallied differently by different observers, introducing ambiguity into any exact number.
• Changes to the Manhattan skyline since the 1930s (One World Trade Center, 432 Park Avenue, Central Park Tower, 30 Hudson Yards) plausibly redistribute some strikes, meaning the historical rate may not be precisely current.

84/100 — the lab’s own confidence in the score above, not a second reading of the claim.

NOAA / National Weather Servicegov · 96 · NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratorygov · 95 · NOAA / National Weather Service Lightning Safetygov · 95 · Empire State Realty Trust (Empire State Building official site)other · 60 · National Geographicnews · 82 · Journal of the Franklin Institute (McEachron, 'Lightning to the Empire State Building,' 1939)journal · 88

• The Empire State Building’s official facts/figures page states that the building is struck by lightning an average of 25 times per year.
• NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory says lightning can strike the same place repeatedly and gives the Empire State Building as an example, saying it is hit by lightning about 23 times a year. That independently supports the claim’s order of magnitude and is consistent with “about 25.”

• The strongest caveat is wording: NOAA gives about 23 strikes per year, while the building’s official site gives an average of 25. This suggests the figure is an approximate average, not a precise count that occurs every calendar year.
• Annual lightning strikes vary with weather, so “every year” should be read as an average rate rather than a guarantee of roughly 25 strikes in each individual year.

92/100 — the lab’s own confidence in the score above, not a second reading of the claim.

Empire State Buildingother · 82 · NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratorygov · 95

• The National Weather Service uses the Empire State Building as a primary example to debunk the myth that lightning never strikes the same place twice, officially noting that it is hit an average of 23 times a year.
• The building's immense height (1,454 feet including the antenna) and metallic structure make it an ideal lightning rod for the surrounding area, and it is architecturally designed to safely absorb and ground dozens of strikes annually.
• Many architectural and meteorological sources commonly round the National Weather Service's average of 23 up to 'about 25' strikes per year.

• The exact number of strikes fluctuates significantly from year to year based on weather patterns; it is an average rather than a strict annual quota.
• While 'about 25' is widely cited and functionally accurate, the most rigorous scientific tracking by the National Weather Service cites the specific average as 23 times per year.

98/100 — the lab’s own confidence in the score above, not a second reading of the claim.

National Weather Servicegov · 100

• The Empire State Building’s official Facts & Figures page states that its antenna is hit by lightning an average of 25 times a year.[https://www.esbnyc.com/about/facts-figures]
• New York City Emergency Management repeats the estimate of 25 lightning strikes per year and reports that the building was struck eight times in 24 minutes during one storm.[https://www.nyc.gov/site/em/ready/thunderstorms.page]
• MPR News reported that the National Weather Service estimates the building is struck by lightning an average of 25 times annually.[https://www.mprnews.org/story/2014/07/08/when-lightning-strikes-tall-buildings]
• A University of Florida lightning expert was quoted as estimating approximately 20–25 strikes per year, consistent with the claim’s wording.[https://www.livescience.com/13704-empire-state-building-lightning-strike.html]

• The available evidence is not perfectly consistent: a research brief reports that the National Weather Service has used an estimate of 23 strikes per year, while the building’s own current website says 25.[https://researchtoolbench.com/research-briefs/lightning-same-place-twice/]
• Some secondary sources give a much wider range of 25–100 strikes per year, indicating that the annual figure may depend on the observation period, definition of a strike, or source methodology.[https://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/storms/10-lightning-myths.htm]
• The cited sources generally provide an estimate rather than a transparent measurement series or methodology, so 25 should be treated as an approximate long-term average rather than an exact annual count.

92/100 — the lab’s own confidence in the score above, not a second reading of the claim.

Empire State Buildingother · 95 · New York City Emergency Managementgov · 93 · MPR Newsnews · 87 · Live Sciencenews · 82 · Research Tool Benchother · 45 · HowStuffWorksother · 65

• The ~25 strikes per year figure has been a standard statistic circulated by the Empire State Building and repeated for decades in encyclopedias, news reports, and tourism materials.
• Historical instrumentation of the building for lightning research (notably 1930s General Electric studies) established that a very tall isolated conductor in the New York thunderstorm climate is hit on the order of dozens of times annually.
• Contemporary news coverage of individual strikes routinely restates the same long-standing average without contradiction from lightning-detection operators.

• The number is an average, not a fixed count; actual strikes fluctuate with the year's thunderstorm activity, so 'every year' is slightly stronger than a strict climatological mean.
• Secondary sources sometimes round to '20–25' or 'as many as 25,' showing the canonical figure is an approximation rather than a precise modern census.
• The most-repeated number appears to rest primarily on mid-20th-century observations rather than a continuously published total from present-day national lightning networks.

82/100 — the lab’s own confidence in the score above, not a second reading of the claim.

Wikipediaother · 80 · Encyclopædia Britannicaother · 92