![]() ![]() We bet you’re picturing a bolt that seems to extend from the clouds down to the ground, tree, or building. This makes thunder a poor indicator of when to go indoors to safety but if you have no other alerting system, remember: When thunder roars, go indoors!Ĭlose your eyes and picture a lightning strike. Especially since lightning strikes can extend over 10 miles away from a storm cloud. While thunder can be heard from 25 miles away, that doesn’t mean the storm is a safe distance away. It’s this air expansion that creates the loud boom of thunder. But it also heats the air channel near it to around 18,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The answer is: #Lightning! Click To Tweetīut how? As we mentioned before, lightning can get pretty hot. The answer is: Lightning! #LightningFacts A lot of people wonder what causes thunder or why it happens in the first place. We can’t forget about thunder! A lot of people wonder what causes thunder or why it happens in the first place. You can do more reading on lightning basics with our friends at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That’s why trees, air-traffic control towers, and even people make great lightning conductors! The positive charge from the ground connects with the negative charge from the cloud, creating cloud-to-ground lightning.ĭespite the appearance of the lightning strike coming down from the cloud, the positive charge reaching up from the ground causes a white hot bolt of lightning to fracture the skyline. This is attracted to the negative charge at the bottom of the cloud, so it concentrates around anything that sticks up into the air. ![]() Lightning heads from the cloud towards the ground and becomes a danger to those outdoors when a buildup of positive charge forms on the ground beneath the cloud. When both charges grow large enough, lightning occurs between them. The heavier negatively-charged particles sink to the bottom. These particles slamming into each other create an electrical charge.Īs the cloud fills up with electrical charges, lighter positively-charged particles form at the top of the cloud. This is the beginning of a lightning bolt. A lot of tiny pieces of ice bump into each other as they frantically move around within the cloud. When this hot air and cold air meet, a thunderstorm forms. It’s so cold that the water vapor turns into ice! In the tops of clouds, temperatures are actually below freezing. ![]() As warm air rises, the cloud expands, getting bigger and bigger. When the ground is hot, it heats up the air directly above it. It starts when an electric current forms in a cloud. While scientists aren’t exactly sure why lightning happens, they do know how it happens. We call storms that have lightning thunderstorms. This quick video from the Met Office below easily explains what thunder is. Thunder is the noise that lightning makes when it flashes and heats up the air. Lightningis the occurrence of a natural electrical discharge of very short duration and high voltage between a cloud and the ground or within a cloud. This violent and sudden electrostatic discharge generates a bright flash and thunder. Don’t Have Time to Read the Entire Guide Now?ĭownload a PDF version of the guide you can reference later.
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