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Super Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest cyclones in history, had lightning in its inner core for nearly 50 percent of its lifecycle, according to a new analysis.

Conditions surrounding Haiyan were nearly perfect for the growth of both the tropical cyclone and for lightning in its core, according to a study Wenjuan Zhang presented at the annual meeting of the European Geosciences Union in April. Lightning was nearly symmetrical in the eyewall throughout Haiyan's most intense period up until landfall.

(MORE: Hurricane Central | Current Lightning Map)

Super Typhoon Haiyan was responsible for killing 6,300 people in the Philippines, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Center in the Philippines. 

Lightning sensors tracked Haiyan's inner core across the west Pacific in early November 2013, capturing 200,000 lightning flashes throughout just less than four days as Haiyan approached the Philippines, according to Antti Pessi, a research scientist at Vaisala Inc., who shared his findings at the annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society in 2015. 

Lightning is usually quite rare at any time in a hurricane's lifespan, especially in their core, so this amount of lightning is astounding. 

In comparison, Hurricane Katrina produced 4,300 lightning flashes in 2.5 days before landfall, Pessi said.

On average, hurricanes contain roughly a dozen cloud-to-ground lightning strikes per hour, according to NOAA. Haiyan produced more than 170 times this amount of lightning if all the counted flashes reached the ground as strikes in Pessi's study. 

In the image below, lightning flashes are seen illuminating the skies above Haiyan during the nighttime hours before landfall in the eastern Philippines. Bright white light is the lightning. 

(MORE: Flooding Was Nearly Three Times Deadlier Than Tornadoes and Lightning Combined in 2015-16, NOAA Says)

The reason lightning occurs in hurricanes is still debatable, but a few different hypotheses have been proposed in the last 10 years. 

Most lightning in hurricanes is thought to occur during periods of fast intensity changes, but landfall and eyewall replacement cycles – where hurricanes replace their zones of maximum impact – have been known to cause lightning.  

(VIDEO: 5 Bad Places to Be in a Lightning Storm) 

According to Pessi, Haiyan had numerous lightning outbreaks, but its biggest displays of nature's fireworks came during its first two brushes with land in the eastern Philippines. 

Lightning often indicates that intense thunderstorms are occurring in tropical cyclones and a sign that the cyclone is intensifying. 

This is what occurred most recently in Hurricane Matthew in the Caribbean in 2016. 

Lightning in the leading eyewall is seen on the Curaçao radar in the tweet below just before a period of rapid intensification. At the time of the radar shot, winds were 100 mph. A day later winds increased to 160 mph, making it a rare Category 5 hurricane in the Caribbean Sea. 

The new Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM), a new instrument aboard the GOES-16 satellite, is expected to see tropical cyclones in the Atlantic and East Pacific this year, giving meteorologists a new tool to forecast rapid changes.

The GLM could make a big difference for near-landfall tropical systems because forecasters should be able to better forecast  quick intensity changes and hopefully save lives in the process. 

MORE FROM WEATHER.COM: Super Typhoon Haiyan