Facts about LIGHTNING
lightning, red-sprite lightning, spider lightning,
lightning crawlers, out-of-the-blue lightning, positive giant lightning,
CG lightning, IC lightning, lightning in thunderstorms,
tornados and lightning
The upward and downward motions within a thunderstorm causes air to rise above and fall below
the freezing point, upon which moisture changes from water to ice and back to water again. There is something about
this process that tends to create an electrostatic gradient in the thunderstorm cloud (called a CB for short). The top
of the CB becomes positively charged and the bottom negatively. If the gradient is strong enough, electrons from the
bottom of the cloud will discharge to the top in the form of lightning (called IC lightning or intracloud lightning). A negatively
charged cloud base repels electrons on the surface and thus causes a positively charged surface. A discharge from
the cloud to the ground is called CG lightning (cloud-to-ground lightning). The bottoms of adjust storms
can discharge to the tops of others and vice versa, which is also deemed IC lightning. Lightning can occur
in many forms - the most dangerous of which is called a Positive Giant, or "bolt from the blue". This is
when a discharge occurs between the positive CB top and the relatively negative charge of outlying surface
areas away from the thunderstorm. This is rare because of the great distances (sometimes up to 20 miles!)
that such lightning has to travel, but when it occurs it is by far the most deadly. Positive giants have
many times the destructive power of normal lightning and as its nickname denotes, strikes where no thunderstorm
is overhead. You can get struck by lightning under a clear blue sky, by a thunderstorm twenty miles away!
Contrary to popular belief, it is quite common for people to be struck by lightning, and in fact lightning
is a very poor killer. While people do get killed by lightning, most survive it. Here are some facts about
lightning taken from the Stormwise website, makers of very good and
inexpensive lightning detection devices:
- Each second there are 50 to 100 Cloud-to-Ground Lightning Strikes to the Earth world-wide.
- Most lightning strikes average 2 to 3 miles long and carry a current of 10000 Amps at 100 million Volts.
- A "Positive Giant" is a lightning strike that hits the ground up to 20 miles away from the storm. Because it seems to strike from a clear sky it is known as "A Bolt From The Blue". These "Positive Giant" flashes strike between the storm's top "anvil" and the Earth and carry several times the destructive energy of a "regular" lightning strike.
- Thunder can only be heard about 12 miles away under good quiet outdoor conditions.
- Daytime lightning is difficult or impossible to see under local sun and/or hazy conditions. Night-time "heat lightning" can be seen up to 100 miles away (depending on "seeing" conditions).
- "Lightning Crawlers" or "Spider Lightning" can travel over 35 miles as it "crawls" across the bottoms or through squall line "frontal" clouds.This rare type of lightning is very beautiful as it zaps from "horizon-to-horizon". However it can turn deadly if it happens to strike the ground at the end of its super long path! {Lightning Crawlers from The Blue!}
- Radar has detected Lightning "Crawlers" traveling at high altitudes (15000 ft to 20000 ft) as they zap from cloud-to-cloud.
- Lightning "Crawlers" over seventy five (75) miles long have been observed by Radar!
- The temperature of a typical lightning bolt is 40000 F. This is 7 times hotter than the surface of the Sun, which is "only" 6000 F !
- How big around is a typical lightning bolt? Answer: About the size of a Quarter to Half-Dollar! Lightning looks so much wider than it really is just because its light is so bright!
- Lightning Strikes create powerful radio waves in the frequency range of 3 KHz (audio, VLF) through 10 MHz (shortwave radio). The VLF (3000 Hz to 30000 Hz) "lightning signatures" can travel around the world, allowing monitoring of world-wide lightning. The shortwave "lightning signatures can travel half-way around the Earth (the night-time side of the Earth). The best region to listen for distant shortwave lightning signatures is from 2 MHz through 8 MHz.
- "Red Sprite" lightning is a newly-rediscovered type of lightning that zaps between the 40 mile span between the tops of severe storm clouds to the lower ionosphere "D" layer. Red Sprite Lightning looks like a giant "blood-red"-colored jellyfish having light-blue tentacles. Red Sprite Lightning creates extremely powerful radio emissions from 2000 Hz through VHF.
- Red Sprite Lightning has been associated with very powerful "Atmospheric Gamma Ray Bursts" {i.e. Nuclear Radiation from Lightning Strikes! [Keep your Geiger-Muller Counters handy during severe storms, Y'all!]
- UHF Television Signals easily "bounce off" the electrical pathways that lightning creates! Tune your hand-held scanner (or TV) to the sound carrier frequency of a 200 to 300 mile distant UHF TV station in the range of CH 14 to CH 21 (you should NOT be able to receive the station at all under normal weather conditions!) When lightning flashes, sometimes you will hear about 1/4 second of the TVstation's sound!