THUNDER AND LIGHTNING. Nature’s Fireworks.

 

THUNDER AND LIGHTNING. Nature’s Fireworks.

Lightning is a big spark of electricity within the atmosphere between clouds, the air, or the bottom ground. In the early stages of development, air acts as material between the positive and negative charges within the cloud and between the cloud and therefore the ground. When the opposite charges build up enough, this insulating capability of the air breaks down and there's a speedy discharge of electricity that we all know as lightning. The flash of lightning briefly equalizes the charged regions in the atmosphere till the opposite charges build up again.

Lightning is that the most spectacular part of a thunderstorm. In fact it is however thunderstorms got their name. Wait a movement, what will thunder have to be compelled to do with lightning? Well, lightning causes thunder.

Lightning is a discharge of electricity. One stroke of lightning will heat the air around it to 30,000°C (54,000°F)! This extreme heating causes the air to expand explosively quick. The expansion creates a shock wave that turns into a booming sound wave, called thunder.

Types of Lightning:

Cloud-to-ground lightning bolts are a typical phenomenon—about one hundred strike Earth’s surface each single second—yet their power is extraordinary. Every bolt will contain up to 1 billion volts of electricity.

A typical cloud-to-ground lightning bolt begins when a step-like series of negative charges, known as stepped leader, races downward from the bottom of a cloud toward the Earth along on a channel at concerning 200,000 mph (300,000 kph). Every of those segments is about 150 feet (46 meters) long.

When the bottom step comes at intervals 150 feet (46 meters) of a positively charged object, it's met by a rising surge of positive electricity,  known as streamer, which might stand up through a building, a tree, or maybe a someone.

When the two connect, an electrical current flows as negative charges fly down the channel towards earth and a visible flash of lightning streaks upward at some 200,000,000 mph (300,000,000 kph), transferring electricity as lightning within the method.

THUNDER AND LIGHTNING. Nature’s Fireworks.

Some kinds of lightning, together with the foremost common varieties, never leave the clouds however travel between otherwise charged areas within or between clouds. Other rare forms are often sparked by extreme forest fires, volcanic eruptions, and snowstorms. Ball lightning, a small, charged sphere that floats, glows, and bounces along oblivious to the laws of gravity or physics, still puzzles scientists.

About one to twenty cloud-to-ground lightning bolts is "positive lightning," a kind that originates in the positively charged tops of storm clouds. These strikes reverse the charge flow of typical lightning bolts and are so much stronger and additional destructive. Positive lightning will stretch across the sky and strike "out of the blue" over 10 miles from the storm cloud wherever it had been born.

It can be fun playing in gentle rain, splashing in puddles and chasing raindrops. But this would be a dangerous thing to do if there were thunderclouds above.

Thunderclouds are the large, dark, often fast-moving clouds that come out during storms. Thunderclouds rumble mightily during storms, and that rumbling indicates the presence of lightning. The rumbling is the sound lightning makes as it arcs across the sky.

During a thunderstorm, electricity collects in the clouds. And often this electricity is released as lightning. It's dangerous to be outside when there is a risk of lightning because it can quite easily kill someone from miles away. People have died from lightning strikes even though the storm the lightning has come from was barely visible on the horizon.

Lightning bolts frequently race to the ground, drawn by objects such as trees and lamppost, attracted to tall objects, which are especially good conductors of electricity. Lightning is most which is why trees, buildings, and radio towers are often struck.

Actually there are two parts to a lightning strike. The bolt from the sky is the part we don't see, because it is so fast and faint. The part we do see is the return strike. This is a bright flash of lightning that jumps up out of the ground to meet the lightning coming down and then races up to the base of the clouds.

Lightning can hurt or kill people who are struck by it. If you ever are caught in a thunderstorm, go indoors quickly or get into a car. Lightning that hits a car travels harmlessly into the ground.

THUNDER AND LIGHTNING. Nature’s Fireworks.