The clouds of a thunderstorm, cumulonimbus clouds, (the largest clouds there are) usually produce lightning although other types of clouds like ones that produce snowstorms, duststorms and even clouds of
a volcanic eruption, or a fireball of a thermonuclear explosion
can produce lightning.
A thousand or more thunderstorms are happening somewhere on earth all the time. About 100 lightning flashes are happening each second. Most
of the lightning that we see is between a cloud and the ground. Lightning also occurs within the same cloud, between two clouds and a cloud and the air. When lightning occurs in the sky, the electrical energy that it produces, scatters through the air.
Lightning is made up of "strokes". The bright light that we see in a flash of lightning is called a "return stroke". Return strokes travel at the speed of light (186,282 miles per second) and it produces a discharge of about 100 million volts of electricity and it heats the air in its path to 60,000 degrees F (33,000 degrees C)!!! The air heated by the return strokes expands quickly making a wave of pressure that explodes and we know that as thunder. Because sound waves travel slower than light waves, you can use the "flash-to-bang" method to tell how close a thunderstorm is to you. Dividing the length of time in the delay in seconds, by five, between the flash and when you hear the thunder, will give you distance in miles to the storm.
A flash of lightning may be one return stroke, but most of the time, "dart leaders" carry more negative charges from the cloud to the earth. Each dart leader is followed by a return stroke. This happens 3 or 4 times or more within the split second that we see as the flash. Flashes vary in length. A flash between a cloud and the earth can be up to 9 miles long, a flash between two clouds can be 90 miles long!
WEIRD
SCIENCE:
Where Truth is Stranger
than Fiction!
Where Truth is Stranger
than Fiction!
What
is Lightning?
LIGHTNING
CAN BE DANGEROUS!
KNOW
THE
SAFETY MEASURES
DO Take shelter in a house or building.
DO Stay in a
car or truck,
as long as it isn't a convertible.
DO NOT touch anything metal in the car or truck.
DO NOT use the
telephone,
unless there is an emergency.
DO NOT
stand under or near
a single tall tree or anything tall
in an open area.
DO
NOT stand on a hill, on a beach,
or in an open field.
GET
AWAY from metal things
such as your bicycle.
STAY OUT of and away from water.