The average American has about a 1 in 5, chance of being struck by lightning during a lifetime. Lightning's extreme heat will vaporize the water inside a tree, creating steam that may blow the tree apart. Cars are havens from lightning—but not for the reason that most believe.
Tires conduct current, as do metal frames that carry a charge harmlessly to the ground. Many houses are grounded by rods and other protection that conduct a lightning bolt's electricity harmlessly to the ground. Homes may also be inadvertently grounded by plumbing, gutters, or other materials.
Grounded buildings offer protection, but occupants who touch running water or use a landline phone may be shocked by conducted electricity. A supercell thunderstorm strikes in South Dakota. Among the most severe storms, supercells can bring strong winds, hail, and even tornadoes. See more extreme weather pictures. All rights reserved. Lightning Strikes A supercell thunderstorm strikes in South Dakota.
Share Tweet Email. Read This Next Wild parakeets have taken a liking to London. Animals Wild Cities Wild parakeets have taken a liking to London Love them or hate them, there's no denying their growing numbers have added an explosion of color to the city's streets. India bets its energy future on solar—in ways both small and big. In the early stages of development, air acts as an insulator between the positive and negative charges in the cloud and between the cloud and the ground.
When the opposite charges build up enough, this insulating capacity of the air breaks down and there is a rapid discharge of electricity that we know as lightning.
The actual breakdown process is still poorly understood. The air breakdown creates ions and free electrons that travel down the conducting channel. This current flow temporarily equalizes the charged regions in the atmosphere until the opposite charges build up again. Lightning from thunderstorms begins in a strong electric field between opposite charges within the storm cloud, and can stay completely within the cloud intra-cloud lightning when the charge regions are similar strength balanced or can reach the ground cloud-to-ground lightning when one of the regions is much stronger than the other unbalanced.
Lightning may strike exterior phone lines. Do not use electric equipment like computers and appliances during a storm. Stay away from windows and doors and stay off porches. Call or send for help immediately.
The injured person does not carry an electrical charge, so it is okay to touch them. Lightning What is lightning? Lightning is a bright flash of electricity produced by a thunderstorm. All thunderstorms produce lightning and are very dangerous. If you hear the sound of thunder, then you are in danger from lightning. Lightning kills and injures more people each year than hurricanes or tornadoes; between 75 to people.
What causes lightning? Lightning is an electric current. Within a thundercloud way up in the sky, many small bits of ice frozen raindrops bump into each other as they move around in the air.
All of those collisions create an electric charge. After a while, the whole cloud fills up with electrical charges. The positive charges or protons form at the top of the cloud and the negative charges or electrons form at the bottom of the cloud.
Since opposites attract, that causes a positive charge to build up on the ground beneath the cloud. The grounds electrical charge concentrates around anything that sticks up, such as mountains, people, or single trees. The charge coming up from these points eventually connects with a charge reaching down from the clouds and - zap - lightning strikes! Have you ever rubbed your feet across carpet and then touched a metal door handle?
If so, then you know that you can get shocked! Lightning works in the same way. Click Here to see where lightning is currently striking across the U. How hot is lightning? Lightning is approximately 54, degrees Fahrenheit. That is six times hotter than the surface of the sun! What color is lightning? Lightning seems to be clear or a white-yellow color, but it really depends on the background. What causes thunder? Thunder is caused by lightning. When a lightning bolt travels from the cloud to the ground it actually opens up a little hole in the air, called a channel.
Once then light is gone the air collapses back in and creates a sound wave that we hear as thunder. Lightning happens. The electric field "looks" for a doorknob.
Sort of. It looks for the closest and easiest path to release its charge. Often lightning occurs between clouds or inside a cloud. But the lightning we usually care about most is the lightning that goes from clouds to ground—because that's us!
As the storm moves over the ground, the strong negative charge in the cloud attracts positive charges in the ground. These positive charges move up into the tallest objects like trees, telephone poles, and houses. A "stepped leader" of negative charge descends from the cloud seeking out a path toward the ground.
Although this phase of a lightning strike is too rapid for human eyes, this slow-motion video shows it happening.
0コメント