Most sayings apply in some instance, even if sayings often contradict each other. A stitch in time may very well save nine, but haste often makes waste. “Lightning never strikes twice in the same place” means an unusual event will not happen twice to the same person or in the same way. Despite this gut-level intuition, unusual events do repeat. One person sometimes wins the big lottery prize for a second time; or take a random selection of twenty-three persons and you’ll find there’s a 50 percent chance that at least two of them celebrate the same birthdate. Who hasn’t been surprised at learning this for the first time?

But lightning frequently strikes over and over in the same place – the Empire State Building is hit an average of 25 times per year, according to a state website, and other sources give higher numbers. Surely, even back in whatever day sayings were created, people noticed the same lone tree or hill top was struck repeatedly.

Accuweather simply lists the saying as a myth. Phrase Finder reports the first written reference “in the United States in ‘The Man in Lower Ten’ by American writer Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876-1958)” but suggests the “old superstition” had been around before then.