Decribe a thunder/lightning storm?

Question

Decribe a thunder/lightning storm?

Answer 1

Lightning always accompanies a thunderstorm. It is estimated that lightning hits the Earth 100 times each second. That's 8.6 million strikes per day and over three billion each year.

Lightning is five times hotter than the sun. A single bolt can reach 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

two

Lightning is an electrical discharge produced to balance the differences between positive and negative charges within a cloud, between two clouds, or between the cloud and the ground.

You've heard the expression, "opposites attract." Well, this is exactly what happens with cloud-to-ground lightning.

A negative charge at the base of the cloud is attracted to a positive charge at the earth's surface. This charge is densest on isolated or protruding objects, like trees and tall buildings. When the difference between these charges becomes sufficiently strong, the normal insulating qualities of the air break down and a lightning bolt strikes.

What occurs as an instantaneous flash to the human observer actually is a complex progression of events. First, a usually invisible discharge of electrons races down from the cloud. This downward moving bolt of negatively charged electricity (called a stepped leader) incites a discharge of positively charged electricity from the ground.

This second bolt races upward to meet the descending charge, and it is when they connect that the luminous flash of electricity we know as lightning races up from the ground to the cloud in perhaps 1/10,000th of a second. This final step in the lightning process is called a "return stroke."

During a thunderstorm, not only is the ground positively charged, so is everything on it. The tallest object in the area is most likely to be struck, whether it is a building, a tree, or a person standing alone in a field.

Answer 2

thrilling

exhilarating

loud

energizing

Answer 3

Terrible, scary, stressing....

If there is one coming let me know so I can go hide in my closet with my iPod :(

Answer 4

Lightning is an atmospheric discharge of electricity, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms.[1] In the atmospheric electrical discharge, a leader of a bolt of lightning can travel at speeds of 60,000 m/s, and can reach temperatures approaching 30,000 °C (54,000 °F), hot enough to fuse soil or sand into glass channels.[2][3] There are over 16 million lightning storms every year.[1]

Lightning can also occur within the ash clouds from volcanic eruptions, or can be caused by violent forest fires which generate sufficient dust to create a static charge.[1][4]

How lightning initially forms is still a matter of debate:[5] Scientists have studied root causes ranging from atmospheric perturbations (wind, humidity, friction, and atmospheric pressure) to the impact of solar wind and accumulation of charged solar particles.[6] Ice inside a cloud is thought to be a key element in lightning development, and may cause a forcible separation of positive and negative charges within the cloud, thus assisting in the formation of lightning.[6]

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) endeavored to test the theory that sparks shared some similarity with lightning using a spire which was being erected in Philadelphia. While waiting for completion of the spire, he got the idea of instead using a flying object, such as a kite. During the next thunderstorm, which was in June 1752, it was reported that he raised a kite, accompanied by his son as an assistant. On his end of the string he attached a key, and he tied it to a post with a silk thread. As time passed, Franklin noticed the loose fibers on the string stretching out; he then brought his hand close to the key and a spark jumped the gap. The rain which had fallen during the storm had soaked the line and made it conductive.

Franklin was not the first to perform the kite experiment. Thomas-François Dalibard and De Lors conducted it at Marly-la-Ville in France, a few weeks before Franklin's experiment.[7][8] In his autobiography (written 1771-1788, first published 1790), Franklin clearly states that he performed this experiment after those in France, which occurred weeks before his own experiment, without his prior knowledge as of 1752.[9]

As news of the experiment and its particulars spread, people attempted to replicate it. However, experiments involving lightning are always risky and frequently fatal. One of the most well-known deaths during the spate of Franklin imitators was that of Professor George Richmann of Saint Petersburg, Russia. He created a set-up similar to Franklin's, and was attending a meeting of the Academy of Sciences when he heard thunder. He ran home with his engraver to capture the event for posterity. According to reports, while the experiment was under way, ball lightning appeared and collided with Richmann's head, killing him.[10][11]

Although experiments from the past time of Benjamin Franklin showed that lightning was a discharge of static electricity, there was little improvement in theoretical understanding of lightning (in particular how it was generated) for more than 150 years. The impetus for new research came from the field of power engineering: as power transmission lines came into service, engineers needed to know much more about lightning in order to adequately protect lines and equipment.

An average bolt of lightning carries an electric current of 40 kiloamperes (kA) (although some bolts can be up to 120 kA), and transfers a charge of five coulombs and 500 MJ. The voltage depends on the length of the bolt, with the dielectric breakdown of air being three million volts per meter; this works out to approximately one gigavolt (one billion volts) for a 300 m (1000 ft) lightning bolt. With an electric current of 100 kA, this gives a power of 100 terawatts. However, lightning leader development is not a simple matter of dielectric breakdown, and the ambient electric fields required for lightning leader propagation can be a few orders of magnitude less than dielectric breakdown strength. Further, the potential gradient inside a well-developed return-stroke channel is on the order of hundreds of volts per meter or less due to intense channel ionization, resulting in a true power output on the order of megawatts per meter for a vigorous return-stroke current of 100 kA [12].

Lightning heats nearby air to about 10,000 °C (18,000 °F) nearly instantly, which is almost twice the temperature of the Sun’s surface. The heating creates a shock wave that is heard as thunder.[13]

The return stroke of a lightning bolt follows a charge channel only about a centimeter (0.4-in) wide. Most lightning bolts are about 1.6 kilometers (1 mi) long. The longest recorded length was 190 kilometers (118 mi), sighted near Dallas, Texas.[14]

Different locations have different potentials (voltages) and currents for an average lightning strike. For example, Florida, with the United States' largest number of recorded strikes in a given period during the summer season, has very sandy ground in some areas and conductive saturated mucky soil in others. As much of Florida lies on a peninsula, it is bordered by the ocean on three sides. The result is the daily development of sea and lake breeze boundaries that collide and produce thunderstorms. Arizona, which has very dry, sandy soil and a very dry air, has cloud bases as high as 1800-2100 m (6,000-7,000 ft) above ground level, and gets very long and thin purplish discharges which crackle; while Oklahoma, with cloud bases about 450-600 m (1,500-2,000 ft) above ground level and fairly soft, clay-rich soil, has big, blue-white explosive lightning strikes that are very hot (high current) and cause sudden, explosive noise when the discharge comes. The difference in each case may consist of differences in voltage levels between clouds and ground. Research on this is still ongoing.[citation needed]

NASA scientists have found the radio waves created by lightning clear a safe zone in the radiation belt surrounding the earth. This zone, known as the Van Allen Belt slot, can potentially be a safe haven for satellites, offering them protection from the Sun's radiation.

Thunder is the sound made by lightning. Depending on the nature of the lightning and distance of the listener, it can range from a sharp, loud crack to a long, low rumble. The sudden increase in pressure and temperature from lightning produces rapid expansion of the air surrounding and within a bolt of lightning. In turn, this expansion of air creates a sonic shock wave which produces the sound of thunder

The cause of thunder has been the subject of centuries of speculation and scientific inquiry. The first recorded theory is attributed to the Greek philosopher Aristotle in the third century, and an early speculation was that it was caused by the collision of clouds. Subsequently, numerous other theories have been proposed. By the mid-19th century, the accepted theory was that lightning produced a vacuum. In the 20th century a consensus evolved that thunder must begin with a shock wave in the air due to the sudden thermal expansion of the plasma in the lightning channel. In a fraction of a second the air is heated to a temperature approaching 28,000 °C (50,000 °F)[1]. This heating causes it to expand outward, plowing into the surrounding cooler air at a speed faster than sound would travel in that cooler air. The outward-moving pulse that results is a shock wave, similar in principle to the shock wave formed by an explosion, or at the front of a supersonic aircraft. More recently, this consensus has been eroded by the observation that measured overpressures in simulated lightning are greater than what could be achieved by the amount of heating found. Alternative proposals rely on electrodynamic effects of the massive current acting on the plasma in the bolt of lightning. [2]

The cause of thunder has been the subject of centuries of speculation and scientific inquiry. The first recorded theory is attributed to the Greek philosopher Aristotle in the third century, and an early speculation was that it was caused by the collision of clouds. Subsequently, numerous other theories have been proposed. By the mid-19th century, the accepted theory was that lightning produced a vacuum. In the 20th century a consensus evolved that thunder must begin with a shock wave in the air due to the sudden thermal expansion of the plasma in the lightning channel. In a fraction of a second the air is heated to a temperature approaching 28,000 °C (50,000 °F)[1]. This heating causes it to expand outward, plowing into the surrounding cooler air at a speed faster than sound would travel in that cooler air. The outward-moving pulse that results is a shock wave, similar in principle to the shock wave formed by an explosion, or at the front of a supersonic aircraft. More recently, this consensus has been eroded by the observation that measured overpressures in simulated lightning are greater than what could be achieved by the amount of heating found. Alternative proposals rely on electrodynamic effects of the massive current acting on the plasma in the bolt of lightning. [2]A flash of lightning, followed after some seconds by a rumble of thunder is, for many people, the first illustration of the fact that sound travels more slowly than light. Using this difference, one can estimate how far away the bolt of lightning is by timing the interval between seeing the flash and hearing thunder. The speed of sound in dry air is approximately 343 m/s or 1127 feet per second or 768 MPH at 20 °C. [3] The speed of light is high enough that it can be taken as infinite in this calculation. Therefore, the lightning is approximately one kilometer distant for every 2.9 seconds (or one mile for every 4.6 seconds). In the same five seconds the light could have circled the globe 37 times. Thunder is seldom heard at dista

Answer 5

Horrifying, lonely, loud, exaggerating, scary, dark, disturbing.

But in a way, they could also be peaceful and calming to someone.