Lightning

Lightning is an electrical discharge usually, but not always, produced by well-developed thunderstorms. Although there is a clear-air lightening phenomena,lightning most frequently occurs within a cloud (intra-cloud), between two clouds (inter-cloud), or from the cloud to the ground.

A lightning discharge can heat the air as much as five times hotter than the surface temperature of the Sun (about 54,000°F [30,000°C]). This heated air causes expansion in the air as an explosion, starting a shock wave that turns into a sound wave upon reaching the human ear. Thunder travels in all directions (radially) from the lightning at the speed of the sound approximately 738 MPH at sea level (1,188 km/h). Because it takes the sound about five seconds to travel each mile (about three seconds for 1km), the time between the lightning and the thunder can give a rough estimate of how far an observer is from a thunderstorm.

The quick flash that can be seen as lightning occurs as a complex series of events. In order to have lightning, separate regions of electrical charges must be present in a cumulonimbus cloud. There are several hypotheses as to how this occurs, one mechanism may involve falling ice particles within the cloud that transfer ions. This results in a positively charged upper part and a negatively charged middle part in the cloud. The bottom of the cloud is also mostly negatively charged, causing part of the ground underneath to become positively charged. In the insulating dry air an electrical field builds up, and when it reaches a threshold potential, the air is no longer insulating, and as a current flows, lightning occurs.

Cloud-to-ground lightning (arguably the best understood among the different types of lightning) starts inside the cloud when a critical value of the localized electric field is reached along a path, so a surge of electrons will move to the cloud base, then gradually down to the ground. A short (164 ft [50 m]) and narrow (4 in [10 cm]) conducting channel is created by ionized air molecules, which are produced by the electron flow out of the cloud. These surges of electrons move downward in a series of steps for about 164–328 ft (50-100 m), then they stop for about 50-millionths of a second, and continue for another 164 ft (50 m), creating a stepped leader form of transit. Near the ground, a current of positive charge goes up from the ground to meet the stepped leader, and when they meet, many electrons flow into the ground, and a bright return stroke moves up, following the path of the stepped leader up to the cloud, releasing heat, thunder, and charges. The subsequent leader is called the dart leader, and for subsequent flashes, the same processes reoccur in a similar cycle. Usually, a lightning flash has approximately three or four leaders, each of them accompanied by a return stroke.

To distinguish the several different appearances of lightning, the forms are assigned special names. Heat lightning (also termed clear-air lightning) occurs when lightning can be seen but the following thunder cannot be heard. Forked lightning occurs when a dart leader moving toward the ground diverges from the original path of the stepped leader, so that the lightning seems to be crooked or forked. When the wind moves the ionized channel between the return strokes, the lightning looks like a ribbon hanging from a cloud, so it is called a ribbon lightning. Bead lightning looks like a series of beads on a string, and it occurs as the lightning channel disintegrates. Sheet lightning appears as a white sheet, and it occurs either when clouds obscure the lightning, or when the lightning flash happens within a cloud. St. Elmo's fire, named after the patron of sailors, is a corona discharge, a nonstop supply of sparks in the air, which happens when a positive current moves up on pointed objects. Ball lightning often appears as a luminous, floating sphere in the air. The various mechanisms underlying the varying forms of lightning remain a subject of intensive meteorological research.

During a thunderstorm, usually the tallest object in the area is struck because this provides the most rapid form of current transit to lowest energy state. At any moment, there are about 2000 thunderstorms worldwide, generating about 100 lightning flashes per second. A lightning stroke can deliver a current as great as 100,000 amperes, which can cause severe electrocution in humans and animals. About 100 people die in a year in the United States alone from lightning, and lighting causes billions of dollars in damage each year.