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Lightning is visible as a flash of light because of both incandescence (due to its high temperature it glows blue-white) and luminescence (excitation of nitrogen gas in the atmosphere). Nitrogen, the dominant gas in the atmosphere, is excited by this strong flow of energy, its electrons moving to higher energy states.
How do we see lightning?
The air then contracts rapidly as it cools. This creates an initial CRACK sound, followed by rumbles as the column of air continues to vibrate. If we are watching the sky, we see the lightning before we hear the thunder. That is because light travels much faster than sound waves.
Why do I see lightning but no thunder?
If you see lightning but don’t hear thunder, it is because the thunder is too far away. What we see as a lightning strike actually comes from the ground up, according to NOAA. Typically, a cloud-to-ground flash lowers a path of (invisible) negative electricity towards the ground.
Why is there lightning but no rain?
Dry thunderstorm refers to thunder and lightning that occur without bringing rain to the ground. In fact, the thunder-bearing clouds do produce rain but the rain droplets have evaporated in the air before reaching the ground. The anvil cloud is so high that rain coming from it evaporates before reaching the ground.
Why is thunder so loud?
A big noise Why is thunder so loud? It’s because the amount of electrical energy that flows from the cloud to the ground is so enormous: it’s like a very big waterfall of electricity. The louder the sound that you hear, the closer you are to the lightning. Light travels through air much faster than sound.
What does it mean when lightning keeps flashing?
Understanding Lightning: Continuing Current/Hot Lightning Flashes which contain both return strokes and continuing current are also common. These flashes will flicker, leaders/return strokes, and also have short periods of constant illumination, continuing current.
Does lightning make noise?
Thunder is the sound caused by a nearby flash of lightning and can be heard for a distance of only about 10 miles from the lightning strike. This rapid expansion and contraction creates the sound wave that we hear as thunder.
Is heat lightning a real thing?
Turns out, what some people call heat lightning is just lightning from a far-off storm. According to the Weather Channel, the human eye can see lightning up to 100 miles away, but the human ear can only hear thunder if it’s within 10 to 15 miles of the storm.
Does lightning cause fire?
Lightning plays an outsized role in wildfires: More than 40% of wildfires in the West, largely in places other than California, were caused by lightning, and those fires accounted for more than 70% of the acreage burned between 1992 and 2015, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
Can lightning strike a car?
A typical cloud-to-ground, actually cloud-to-vehicle, lightning strike will either strike the antenna of the vehicle or along the roofline. The lightning will then pass through the vehicle’s outer metal shell, then through the tires to the ground.
Where does lightning strike the most?
The most lightning-struck location in the world Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela is the place on Earth that receives the most lightning strikes. Massive thunderstorms occur on 140-160 nights per year with an average of 28 lightning strikes per minute lasting up to 10 hours at a time.
What was the loudest thunder ever recorded?
The explosion was loud enough that this level of noise was recorded many miles away from the site of the blast. A sound of 174 decibels was recorded by barometers 100 miles from Krakatoa. That meant anyone within an 100 mile radius of Krakatoa had a chance of being literally deafened by this sound.
Why does thunder rumble so long?
High pitch booms come from nearby lightning but distant thunder sounds deeper with lower rumbles. Because of air density dampens out higher frequencies, your ears only hear the lower frequencies propagating through the air. Longer rumbles come from lengthy bolts in the sky over several miles long.
Can you get hurt by thunder?
Lightning can kill people (3,696 deaths were recorded in the U.S. between 1959 and 2003) or cause cardiac arrest. Injuries range from severe burns and permanent brain damage to memory loss and personality change.
What color lightning is the strongest?
White – this is by far one of the most dangerous color of lightning due to the fact that this type of lightning is the hottest. This color can indicate a low concentration of moisture in the air as well as a high concentration of dust in the air.
What is the rarest type of lightning?
ball lightning, also called globe lightning, a rare aerial phenomenon in the form of a luminous sphere that is generally several centimetres in diameter. It usually occurs near the ground during thunderstorms, in close association with cloud-to-ground lightning.
What is the weakest color of lightning?
The color of the bolt depends on how hot it is; the hotter the lightning, the closer the color will be to the end of the spectrum. The color spectrum in this case start with infared which is red and the coolest up to ultraviolet which appears violet and is the hottest.
How long does a lightning last?
Lightning is not distributed evenly around Earth, as shown in the map. On Earth, the lightning frequency is approximately 44 (± 5) times per second, or nearly 1.4 billion flashes per year and the average duration is 0.2 seconds made up from a number of much shorter flashes (strokes) of around 60 to 70 microseconds.
What is lightning made of?
Lightning happens when the negative charges (electrons) in the bottom of the cloud are attracted to the positive charges (protons) in the ground.
Can you see thunder?
Thunder starts as a shockwave from the explosively expanding lightning channel when a large current causes rapid heating. However, it is possible that you might see lightning and not hear the thunder because it was too far away.
