I hear that. Truth or not, where I live in Florida is called the lightning capital of the world. I believe it.
That more or less applies to all central Florida, not just the Tampa Bay area. The shallow water of the bay generates lots of warm, moist air that in summer readily builds thunderstorms that mature and grow as they move inland. A similar mechanism is at work on the Indian River behind Cape Canaveral and is responsible for many ferocious thunderstorms that hit the Orlando area.