Let's Explore Electricity!

Lightning Strike

Lightning is pure energy and can be frightening and dangerous as well as one of nature's most beautiful displays of power. Lightning is usually associated with thunderstorms. Thunderstorms form as masses of warm air move upward in strong currents and may be matched by the downward thrust of cold air. As this is happening it creates an imbalance of electrons in the clouds. Some atoms lose electrons and become positively charged (+) and other atoms gain electrons and become negatively charged (-). The exchange of electrons between positively and negatively charged atoms in the cloud it attracts positive charges from the ground. This is what causes lightning.
The electricity in your home is supplied by the same type of electron exchange, only its flow is controlled through a conductor.

Light travels faster than sound, so this means you can see lightning flashes way before you hear the thunder. Counting the number of seconds between a flash of lightning and the next clap of thunder, and dividing that number by 5 it will give you an estimate of how many miles away the thunderstorm is from where you are. It's important to know if you can hear the thunder you are in danger from lightning.

Example: When you see the lightning and count to 10 before hear the thunder, divide 10 by 5 to get 2. This formula will tell you that the storm is about 2 miles away.

Lightning Safety Tips

When you hear thunder or see lightning, get indoors quickly! Stay away from windows and don't use electrical appliances or talk on the phone when there is a lightning storm. Lightning can strike a power line and travel through it to your electric appliance and your phone. You could get shocked and hurt.

Never stay in a swimming pool, lake or around any water in an electrical storm. Water is a conductor and so are you and you could get shocked. Lightning strikes can travel through the ground so the best place to be is indoors until the storm is over.

Lightning Facts

Most lightning strikes average 2 to 3 miles long and one lightning strike can generate 100 million to 1 billion volts of electricity.

Each second there are 50 to 100 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes to the earth all around the world.

How big around is a lightning bolt? About the size of a quarter to half-dollar! Lightning looks much wider than it really is because the light you see is so bright!

The temperature of a typical lightning bolt is hotter than the surface of the sun! The air within a lightning strike can reach 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit and its path can become five times hotter than the surface of the sun. The sun's surface temperature is about 11,000°F or 6,000°C. That's hot!

Cloud-to-cloud lightning is called "Lightning Crawlers" or "Spider Lightning" and it can travel over 35 miles as it "crawls" across the bottom or through frontal clouds. Lightning crawlers over 75 miles long have been recorded by radar.

Click on each of the lightning
pictures for a larger view.