Scribd
Upload
43 views

Understanding Lightning: Overview: Lightning Science: How Hot Is Lightning?

1) Lightning flashes 25 million times per year in the US, each one potentially deadly. While fatalities have decreased, lightning remains a top weather killer. 2) Thunderstorms develop from warm air pockets rising and forming cumulus clouds. As the clouds grow vertically, precipitation forms within the cloud and charges separate. 3) Lightning is a giant spark that occurs when the difference in charges within or between the cloud and ground becomes too great, causing an electric discharge. It can occur within clouds or between clouds and the ground.

Uploaded by

mhinojosat
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
43 views

Understanding Lightning: Overview: Lightning Science: How Hot Is Lightning?

1) Lightning flashes 25 million times per year in the US, each one potentially deadly. While fatalities have decreased, lightning remains a top weather killer. 2) Thunderstorms develop from warm air pockets rising and forming cumulus clouds. As the clouds grow vertically, precipitation forms within the cloud and charges separate. 3) Lightning is a giant spark that occurs when the difference in charges within or between the cloud and ground becomes too great, causing an electric discharge. It can occur within clouds or between clouds and the ground.

Uploaded by

mhinojosat
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 4

Understanding Lightning: 

Overview: Lightning Science


Lightning is fascinating to
watch but also extremely
dangerous. In the United
States, there are about 25
million lightning flashes How Hot is Lightning?
every year. Each of those 25
million flashes is a potential
It depends what the lightning is passing through. As lightning passes through air, it
killer. While lightning
can heat the air to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit (about 5 times hotter than the surface
fatalities have decreased
of the sun).
over the past 30 years,
lightning continues to be one
of the top weather killers in
the United States. In
addition, lightning injures
many more people than it
kills and leaves some victims
with life-long health
problems.

Understanding the dangers


of lightning is important so
that you can get to a safe
place when thunderstorms
threaten. If you hear thunder
—even a distant rumble—
you are already in danger of
becoming a lightning victim.

How
Thunderstorms
Develop
All thunderstorms go through
stages of growth,
development, electrification
and dissipation.
Thunderstorms often begin
to develop early in the day
when the sun heats the air
near the ground and pockets
of warmer air start to rise in
the atmosphere. When these
pockets of air reach a certain
level in the atmosphere,
cumulus clouds start to form.
Continued heating causes
these clouds to grow
vertically into the
atmosphere. These
"towering cumulus" clouds
may be one of the first signs
of a developing
thunderstorm. The final
stage of development occurs
as the top of the cloud
becomes anvil-shaped.

As a thunderstorm cloud
grows, precipitation forms
within the cloud. A well-
developed thunderstorm
cloud contains mostly small
ice crystals in the upper
levels of the cloud, a mixture
of small ice crystals and
small hail in the middle
levels of the cloud, and a
mixture of rain and melting
hail in the lower levels of the
cloud. Air movements and
collisions between the
various types of precipitation
in the middle of the cloud
cause the precipitation
particles to become charged.
The lighter ice crystals
become positively charged
and are carried upward into
the upper part of the storm
by rising air.

The heavier hail becomes


negatively charged and is How Far Away Was That Lightning?
either suspended by the
rising air or falls toward the
lower part of the storm. The sound of thunder travels about a mile every 5 seconds. If you count the seconds
These collisions and air between the flash of lightning and the crack of thunder and divided by 5, you get the
movements cause the top of number of miles away from you (10 seconds is 
the thunderstorm cloud to
become positively charged
and the middle and lower
part of the storm to become
negatively charged.

In addition, a small positive


charge develops near the
bottom of the thunderstorm
cloud. The negative charge
in the middle of
thunderstorm cloud causes
the ground underneath to
become positively charged,
and the positively charged
anvil causes the ground
under the anvil to become
negatively charged.

How Lightning
Forms
Lightning is a giant spark of
electricity in the atmosphere
or between the atmosphere
and the ground. In the initial
stages of development, air
acts as an insulator between
the positive and negative
charges in the cloud and
between the cloud and the
ground; however, when the
differences in charges
becomes too great, this
insulating capacity of the air
breaks down and there is a
rapid discharge of electricity
that we know as lightning.

Lightning can occur between


opposite charges within the
thunderstorm cloud (Intra
Cloud Lightning) or between
opposite charges in the
cloud and on the ground
(Cloud-To-Ground
Lightning). Cloud-to-ground
lightning is divided two
different types of flashes
depending on the charge in
the cloud where the lightning
originates.

Thunder
Thunder is the sound made
by a flash of lightning. As
lightning passes through the
air it heats the air quickly.
This causes the air to
expand rapidly and creates
the sound wave we hear as
thunder. Normally, you can
hear thunder about 10 miles
from a lightning strike. Since
lightning can strike outward
10 miles from a
thunderstorm, if you hear
thunder, you are likely within
striking distance from the
storm.

Learn More: Thunderstorm
Development

You might also like