Lightning
Lightning is a giant electric spark which has three ways it can travel. Lightning can travel from a cloud to the ground
(which is the most commonly seen), inside a cloud, and from a cloud to another cloud.
There are five basic steps to lightning striking.
- Wind blows causing updrifts and downdrifts.
- Water droplets hit ice crystals.
- Particles become charged and separated inside the cloud. (Like static electricity!)
- Negative charges in the cloud create a positive charge on the ground.
- Lightning strikes.
Did you know?
- Thunder is more or less the sound of lightning.
- Lightning strikes somewhere on Earth about one hundred times each second.
- Lightning can heat the air around it to over 60,000 degrees Fahrenheit. That's hot!
- Return strokes are actually what we call lightning.
- Each flash of lightning lasts only about one millionth of a second.
