Photo of the Day
Lightning strikes the Eiffel Tower
Saturday 17 October 2026
The Eiffel Tower hit by lightning at 9:20 p.m. on 3 June 1902, photographed by the painter and mountaineer Gabriel Loppé. It's one of the earliest photographs of lightning in a city.
Fun facts
- The iron tower works as a giant lightning rod, carrying strikes safely to the ground. source ↗
- A lightning bolt heats the air around it to about 30,000°C, roughly five times hotter than the Sun's surface. source ↗
- The shock wave from that sudden heat is what we hear as thunder. source ↗
- Gustave Eiffel used the tower for science, including weather observations and early radio experiments. source ↗
- Image
- Gabriel Loppé · NOAA Historic NWS Collection
- Licence
- Public domain
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons