Lightning Facts
Read about some surprising facts about this beautiful force of nature below.
“If I accept the sunshine and warmth, then I must also accept the thunder and lightning.” Khalil Gibran
Lightning forms when enough opposite charged particles break the insulation provided by the air in the atmosphere, which causes a rapid discharge of electricity. A lightning bolt heats the air to about 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit, compared to the surface of the sun, which is at 9,941 degrees Fahrenheit. Thunder can be heard up to 25 miles away from the lightning strike, with higher frequencies heard closer to the strike and lower frequencies heard further from the strike.
Several conditions can create an environment that is likely to form lightning- volcanic eruptions, intense forest fires, nuclear detonation, heavy snowstorms, and hurricanes.
- Volcanic eruptions cause lightning as either “dry charging,” or “ice charging,” depending on the size of the plume and whether or not water is involved. The higher the plume, the more ice particles are present in the formation of a lightning charge.
- Aerosols in the air can contribute to formation of lightning during raging wildfires.
- Nuclear detonations can cause lightning by adding negative charged air to the atmosphere.
- Lightning caused during snowstorms is a rare phenomenon, but can sometimes occur when a storm rolls over a warm body of water, such as the Great Lakes.
- Lightning formation during hurricanes is not as common either- hurricane gusts are horizontal, where lightning conditions are normally caused by air being sucked up vertically into the atmosphere. However it can happen during particularly intense hurricanes.
Lightning bolts come in a variety of formations: Here’s just a few:
- Intracloud lightning are lightning strikes that stay within the clouds.
- Negative Cloud to Ground strike are the common strikes that form branches on their way down to the ground.
- Positive Cloud to Ground strike also strike the ground, but lack the branches that are seen in the negative strikes. These are not as common. My “Flash of Purple” photograph, as seen below, is most likely an example of this.
- Anvil Crawlers are strikes with branches that seem to crawl across the sky, instead of down.
- Sheet Lightning is what I always referred to as heat lightning- you won’t see bolts but the sky will light up.
There are many times in my life I would love to experience again. I’ve lived in South Central Texas my entire life, but I was fortunate to spend a summer of 2011 in Virginia. That entire summer was an amazing experience. I had just joined the reserves, and was in Yorktown for the summer, learning how to be a Machinery Technician. As it just so happens, I bought my first smartphone a few months before making the cross country drive.
One afternoon, this absolutely astonishing thunderstorm rolled through. I have never experienced such a spectacular storm, and I was just full of excitement. I was able to hide in a stairwell that was nothing but windows, so I really had a front row seat to lightning strike after lightning strike.
I snuck outside and shot multiple photos of the lightning strikes, and literally jumped up and down with excitement once I realized I captured my “Flash of Purple” photograph. Shortly thereafter, a supervisor yelled at the group of us, asking if we were crazy, so we all scurried back inside the stairwell. It was so worth it.
Sunshine and warmth are great, but thunderstorms are special. Even as a metaphor for life, we have to accept it all.
I am not an expert on lightning, but you can listen to one here, or on Spotify here.
There’s also a storm chaser I follow on YouTube called Pecos Hank- his videos are well made, he doesn’t freak out screaming like many storm chasers, his footage is well shot and well edited, and he gives lessons about various weather phenomenon. My favorite video is “The Endless Storm Season,” which you watch at the link above.
I do not publish behind a “paywall,” so read all you’d like.
