Kids how does lightning work

Called thundersnow, relatively strong instability and abundant moisture may be found above the surface, such as above a warm front, rather than at the surface where it may be below freezing. Thundersnow is sometimes observed downstream of the Great Salt Lake and the Great Lakes during lake-effect snowstorms, too. What happens to the ground when lightning strikes it?

What tends to happen when lightning strikes ground is that it fuses dirt and clays in to silicas. The result is often a glassy rock called a fulgurite in the shape of a convoluted tube. Fulgurite has been found all over the world, but is relatively rare.

The color depends on the minerals in the sand that was struck. The shape in the ground is the shape of the path the lightning current followed in the ground. There is often damage to grasses along this path too. What is fulgurite? Fulgurite is brittle, glassy formations caused by a lightning strike to sandy soil. The lightning heats the soil and fuses the soil particles together surrounding the path of the channel, resulting in a hollow tube-like formation shaped like the section of lightning that formed it.

Does lightning always strike the tallest object? Never say always! It makes sense that the tallest object is most attractive, because it is the easiest path for the lightning to take. Can lightning strike the same place twice? Yes, lightning does hit the same spot or almost the same spot more than once, contrary to folk wisdom.

Taller objects are more likely than shorter objects to produce the upward channel. But it is also possible that something that locally affects the ability of the ground to conduct electricity such as the salt or moisture content of the ground at the time, the presence or absence of rock, standing water, pipes or other metal objects in the ground, the terrain shape, the shape of leaves or twigs, or something else might make a particular location more likely than another nearby location to be struck.

What is a lightning rod? Lightning rods also called conductors are metal rods or similar objects that divert lightning safely to the ground, they can often be seen at the top of tall buildings. What is volcanic lightning? Volcanic lightning, also known as dirty thunderstorms, is capable of producing some of the most powerful and visually striking lightning storms on Earth. Not all volcanic eruptions produce lightning. When it does occur, a single eruption can create multiple, separate lightning storms.

The lightning seems to be set off by explosions during the eruption, although not all explosions cause lightning. During recent eruptions that displayed lightning, scientists observed the most intense lightning occurred at the beginning of the eruption and gradually decreased as the eruption continued, sometimes over a period of weeks.

Types of Lightning What is cloud-to-ground lightning? All lightning is dangerous, but cloud-to-ground lightning is the most dangerous type of lightning. Most cloud-to-ground lightning strikes come from the negatively charged bottom of the cloud traveling to the positively charged ground below. Cloud-to-ground lightning bolts strike the tall objects, like trees and buildings.

These lightning strikes can cause fire and property damage. Lightning is the second weather related killed. What is cloud-to-air lightning? Cloud-to-air lightning is referred to a discharge or portion of a discharge jumping from a cloud into clear air. Technically speaking, all cloud-to-ground lightning strikes contain cloud-to-air components in the many branches that extend away from the main channel and terminate abruptly in mid-air.

However, the most visually dramatic examples of cloud-to-air lightning occur when a long, bright lightning channel jumps out of the side of a cumulonimbus cloud and terminates in the clear air surrounding the storm. What is intracloud lightning?

Intracloud lightning is the most common type of lightning. This occurs when there are both positive and negative charges within the same cloud. Usually, the process takes place within the cloud and looks like a bright flash of light which flickers. What is intercloud lightning? Intercloud lightning is less common. What is an anvil crawler? An anvil crawler is lightning that branches upward and outward like a tree along the tops and sides of large thunderstorms. Anvil crawlers are sometimes referred to as spider lightning.

What is forked lightning? Forked lighting appears as jagged lines of light. They can have several branches. Forked lightning can be seen shooting from the clouds to the ground, from one cloud to another cloud, or from a cloud out into the air. This lightning can strike up to 10 miles away from a thunderstorm. What is sheet lightning? Sheet lightning appears as flashes of light that seem to light up or illuminate entire clouds.

What is heat lightning? Heat lightning is a term used to describe lightning flashes that are too far away from you to hear the thunder. The reason that it is called heat lightning is that it appears most often on a hot summer day when the sky is clear overhead. What is high-altitude lightning? What is ribbon lightning? Ribbon lightning is when a bolt of lightning separates due to wind and appears as parallel lightning streaks.

What is chain or bead lightning? Chain or bead lightning is when a lightning bolt is broken into dotted lines while fading. What is ball lightning? Ball lightning is a rare form of lightning. The differences in the movement of the precipitation cause collisions to occur. When the rising ice crystals collide with graupel, the ice crystals become positively charged and the graupel becomes negatively charged.

See figure to the left. The updraft carries the positively charged ice crystals upward toward the top of the storm cloud. The larger and denser graupel is either suspended in the middle of the thunderstorm cloud or falls toward the lower part of the storm. The result is that the upper part of the thunderstorm cloud becomes positively charged while the middle to lower part of the thunderstorm cloud becomes negatively charged.

The upward motions within the storm and winds at higher levels in the atmosphere tend to cause the small ice crystals and positive charge in the upper part of the thunderstorm cloud to spread out horizontally some distance from thunderstorm cloud base.

This part of the thunderstorm cloud is called the anvil. While this is the main charging process for the thunderstorm cloud, some of these charges can be redistributed by air movements within the storm updrafts and downdrafts. In addition, there is a small but important positive charge buildup near the bottom of the thunderstorm cloud due to the precipitation and warmer temperatures. There are variations of each type, such as "positive" versus "negative" CG flashes, that have different physical characteristics common to each which can be measured.

Different common names used to describe a particular lightning event may be attributed to the same or different events. Cloud-to-ground CG lightning is a lightning discharge between a thundercloud and the ground.

It is initiated by a stepped leader moving down from the cloud, which is met by a streamer moving up from the ground. CG is the least common, but best understood of all types of lightning. It is easier to study scientifically, because it terminates on a physical object, namely the Earth, and lends itself to being measured by instruments on the ground. Of the three primary types of lightning, it poses the greatest threat to life and property since it terminates or "strikes" the Earth.

The overall discharge, termed a flash, is composed of a number of processes such as preliminary breakdown, stepped leaders, connecting leaders, return strokes, dart leaders and subsequent return strokes. Cloud-to-ground CG lightning is either positive or negative, as defined by the direction of the conventional electric current from cloud to ground. Most CG lightning is negative, meaning that a negative charge is transferred to ground and electrons travel downward along the lightning channel.

The reverse happens in a positive CG flash, where electrons travel upward along the lightning channel and a positive charge is transferred to the ground. There are six different mechanisms theorized to result in the formation of downward positive lightning.

Contrary to popular belief, positive lightning flashes do not necessarily originate from the anvil or the upper positive charge region and strike a rain-free area outside of the thunderstorm.

This belief is based on the outdated idea that lightning leaders are unipolar in nature and originating from their respective charge region. Positive lightning strikes tend to be much more intense than their negative counterparts.

An average bolt of negative lightning carries an electric current of 30, amperes 30 kA , and transfers 15 coulombs of electric charge and megajoules of energy. Large bolts of negative lightning can carry up to kA and coulombs. The average positive ground flash has roughly double the peak current of a typical negative flash, and can produce peak currents up to , amperes kA and charges of several hundred coulombs.

Furthermore, positive ground flashes with high peak currents are commonly followed by long continuing currents, a correlation not seen in negative ground flashes. As a result of their greater power, as well as lack of warning, positive lightning strikes are considerably more dangerous.

Due to the aforementioned tendency for positive ground flashes to produce both high peak currents and long continuing current, they are capable of heating surfaces to much higher levels which increases the likelihood of a fire being ignited. Clouds are made of tiny water droplets. Then the ice crystals move to the top of the cloud and the water droplets stay near the bottom of the cloud. When they move past each other and rub against each other, they make static electricity.

You can make static electricity by rubbing a balloon against your hair and then the static electricity makes your hair stand up. Sometimes, if you have socks on and you rub your feet on a carpet, then it makes a tiny shock when you touch somebody else.

That is also static electricity. The static electricity in the cloud makes the ice crystals positively charged and the water droplets negatively charged. If you have ever played with magnets, you will know that the positive side of a magnet is attracted to the negative side of another magnet — but it pushes away the positive side of another magnet.

Opposites attract each other: those with the same charge that is, positive or negative push each other away. The same thing happens with the negatively charged water droplets near the bottom of the thunder cloud. All the negative bits that collect near the bottom of the cloud are called electrons.