Worldwide, it’s estimated that lightning occurs 50-100 times every single second. It’s one of the greatest visual displays in our world, yet despite its awe-inspiring power, scientists are still learning and discovering new things about lightning.
Lightning forks and rejoins itself over Table Mountain and Lion's Head in Cape Town, South Africa. Central Africa is the area of the world where lightning strikes most frequently. Photo by Lynda Smith, My Shot.
A dramatic cloudburst releases jagged bolts of lightning deep into the Grand Canyon near Point Sublime. Photo by Michael Nichols, National Geographic.
Often seen flashing between storm clouds, these bursts of light are pure electricity. The main point of contention surrounding lightning is what exactly causes the electricity to be released from the clouds. However, it is generally understood and agreed upon that lightning occurs in the meeting of updrafts and downdrafts of thunderstorms. As storm clouds grow bigger, massive groups of positively charged particles, called protons, are moving to the top of the cloud, and negatively charged particles, called electrons, are moving toward the bottom. Once they get big enough, these massive groups cause lightning.
The upper part of the thunderstorm cloud becomes positively charged while the middle to lower part of the thunderstorm cloud becomes negatively charged.
Most lightning actually exists within the cloud itself. When the lightning does escape from the cloud, it lasts only a fraction of a second but contains hundreds of millions of volts of power. Although lightning looks like one single stroke, it is actually a strike to the ground as well as a series of return strokes back into the cloud.
A bolt of lightning strikes the Oriental Pearl TV Tower in Shanghai, China. The antenna on top of the 1535 ft (468 m) tower caught fire in April 2010, and lightning was thought to be the cause. Lightning bolts can reach temperatures more than 4 times hotter than the sun. Photo by Sung Ming.
Lightning strikes can reach temperatures of 50,000ºF (27,760ºC). This intense heat is the reason for thunder. Excessive pressure within the lightning path expands at supersonic rates, leading to the loud boom we hear. The greatest frequencies of lightning are in Central Africa, the Himalayas, and South America. Within the United States, lightning leads to over 100 deaths every year – more than hurricanes or tornadoes.
The most powerful lightning ever recorded by humanity occurred on October 31, 2018, in South America. According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the lightning bolt stretched over 440 miles (708 kilometers) across Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay.
This lightning bolt was classified as a "megaflash" and lasted for a total of 16.73 seconds. It had a peak current of 1.3 billion amps, which is approximately 3 million times stronger than a typical household electrical current. The bolt released an estimated energy of 1.2 gigajoules, which is equivalent to the energy released by a powerful earthquake.
The previous record for the longest lightning bolt was set in 2007 over Oklahoma in the United States and was about half the length of the 2018 megaflash. The WMO started keeping track of extreme weather and climate events in 2007 and has since documented a total of four "megaflashes."
It's worth noting that the lightning was detected by satellites rather than directly observed, so it's possible that even more powerful lightning strikes have occurred without being recorded.
Quotes
"Electricity is really just organized lightning." – George Carlin
"They say marriages are made in Heaven. But so is thunder and lightning." – Clint Eastwood
“The best lightning rod for your protection is your own spine.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“If lightning is the anger of the gods, then the gods are concerned mostly about trees.” – Lao Tzu
Recommended books
The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea by Sebastian Junger
The Cloudspotter's Guide by Gavin Pretor-Pinney, Bill Sanderson (Illustrator)
What Stands in a Storm: Three Days in the Worst Superstorm to Hit the South's Tornado Alley by Kim Cross
How did you like the episode? |
😍 Love it | 😐 It's OK | 😕 Meh, do better |
Login or Subscribe to participate in polls. |
Get the word out!
Love Curious Peoples? Your friends will too.
💌 Invite Friends via Email
FAQs
As storm clouds grow bigger, massive groups of positively charged particles, called protons, are moving to the top of the cloud, and negatively charged particles, called electrons, are moving toward the bottom. Once they get big enough, these massive groups cause lightning.
Why does lightning flash in the sky? ›
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.
What is the flash you see as lightning? ›
Once a charged leader makes a connection with the ground, the return stroke occurs. The return stroke is simply the rapid discharge of electricity that has accumulated on the leader. We see this discharge as the bright flash of lightning.
What causes lightning answers? ›
When a charged cloud passes over an uncharged cloud, the uncharged cloud obtains an opposite charge. Later when two oppositely charged clouds come close to each other they attract and strongly combine to produce large amounts of heat, light and sound thus causing lightning.
How does a flash of lightning affect the air around it? ›
The lightning discharge heats the air rapidly and causes it to expand. The temperature of the air in the lightning channel may reach as high as 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit, 5 times hotter than the surface of the sun. Immediately after the flash, the air cools and contracts quickly.
What is the flash in the sky? ›
When lightning is not responsible, the flash may have a true celestial origin—an exploding meteor. Called a bolide, these are meteors bright enough to flash and cast shadows, and they explore above your head several times each year. A bolide is technically a fireball that explodes in the atmosphere.
Why does the flash shoot lightning? ›
Electrokinesis. The Flash harnesses so much energy from the Speed Force that he can actually generate energy using heat and light. As a result, he can even generate lightning. If he's moving fast enough, he can grab the lightning that discharges off of him and throw it.
What is an electric flash from the sky called? ›
Lightning is a very strong jolt of electricity, creating glowing gas particles called plasma that light up the night sky. UCAR. Lightning is the most spectacular element of a thunderstorm.
What is the meaning of lightning flash? ›
lightning noun [U] (ELECTRIC FLASH)
a flash of bright light in the sky produced by electricity moving within or between clouds, or between clouds and the ground: That tree was struck by lightning in a recent thunderstorm.
What is the physics of lightning? ›
Lightning is a visible electrical discharge from a cloud. This happens when there is an imbalance of charges between a region of the cloud and another surface (usually the ground, a building, another region of the same cloud, or another cloud) that is significant enough to break through air resistance.
For every five seconds, the storm is at least one mile away. That means if you counted to 12 seconds before hearing the rumble of thunder, the storm is almost two and a half miles away from you. This science and math trick can be especially fun to do with children.
What can trigger lightning? ›
Lightning is an electrical discharge caused by imbalances between storm clouds and the ground, or within the clouds themselves. Most lightning occurs within the clouds.
What is happening when lightning flashes across the sky? ›
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 ...
What is the chemistry of a lightning strike? ›
Lightning, and even smaller electric discharges in the atmosphere, creates ozone (O3) and two oxidizing chemicals: hydroxyl (OH) and hydroperoxyl (HO2).
What comes first, lightning or thunder? ›
In nature, a lightning flash and the associated thunder occur at almost the same time in a thunderstorm. A person on the ground sees the lightning flash before hearing the thunder because light at a speed of around 300,000,000 meters per second travels much faster than sound which moves at 340 meters per second.
What causes flash of light in the sky? ›
Fireballs and meteors
Meteors are quick flashes of light that streak across the sky caused by space rocks burning up as they fall through the Earth's atmosphere at high speed – blink and you could miss it.
What is a sudden flash of light in the sky during a storm? ›
Lightning is the very bright flashes of light in the sky that happen during thunderstorms.
Why do we see a flash of lightning before? ›
A person on the ground sees the lightning flash before hearing the thunder because light at a speed of around 300,000,000 meters per second travels much faster than sound which moves at 340 meters per second.
Why are there flashes in the sky but no thunder? ›
A Met Office spokesperson said: “It's not an unusual phenomenon. Light travels further than sound. You sometimes see the lightning flash but you are too far away to hear the thunder.” Silent lightning is not out of the ordinary, but still poses the same safety concerns as any storm.
