Nothing puts a damper on a day in the great outdoors quite like a steady rain. Sounds like the beginning of a Fleetwood Mac song. That's because lightning tends to be attracted to the tallest point in a particular area, leaving the Empire State Building to duke it out with the nearby Chrysler Building and 432 Park when storm clouds roll in over midtown Manhattan. The building is struck by lightning anywhere from 25 to 100 times a year, depending on whom you talk to, and took three separate strikes in one night in the spring of 2011.
That long metal rod pointing up from the top isn't just for Godzilla to clean his ears with - the 1,454-foot (444-meter) skyscraper's designed to take lightning hits. The Empire State Building, for example, was once used as a lightning laboratory because of its knack for collecting a natural, atmospheric bolt of electricity. Lightning strikes many places repeatedly. This one sounds great, especially when used to describe events that aren't likely to happen again, like the Chicago Cubs making it back to the World Series.
