On an average, how many times does lightning strike at any city in a year ??

Answer 1

Well recently in a storm here near Dallas, the weather forecasters were showing a count of 2000 strikes in 15 minutes in an area about 10 miles on a side. So taking a city which might be 20-30 miles on a side, and counting the storms in a year, etc., etc., easily hundreds of thousands.
Start here
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/arx/ltning/ltgpaper.php