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Characteristics of Lightning

Approximately 2,000 people worldwide are killed each year because of lightning, according to "National Geographic." While some associate lightning with severe storms and weather, this electrical phenomenon is more common than people think. It's estimated that every second 100 lightning bolts hit the Earth's surface. Such a dangerous weather condition is worth knowing about so you can learn how lightning works and how to avoid it.

  1. Types

    • Multiple types of lightning exist. Cloud-to-ground lightning is where the lightning leaves the clouds in the sky and stretches down in a jagged, stepladder formation to the ground. Intracloud, or cloud-to-cloud, lightning is when the lightning never leaves the cloud that it was formed in, or it can leave the cloud and jump to another cloud. According to the Mother Nature Network, approximately three-fourths of all lightning is intracloud lightning. Another dangerous type of lightning is known as a bolt from the blue. While most lightning bolts are negatively charged, a bolt from the blue is positively charged and shoots out from the upper regions of a cloud, only to be met with a negatively charged object on Earth. Mother Nature Network states a bolt from the blue can travel up to 30 miles.

    Heat

    • Lighting is a form of electricity, and, as such, it is extremely hot. Every bolt of lightning has the potential to contain up to 1 billion electrical volts, "National Geographic" reports, and a single lightning flash is able to heat the atmosphere around it to temperatures that are five times hotter than the sun.

    Attraction

    • Lightning is attracted to electrically charged objects, "National Geographic" states. If the lightning is negative, it will become attracted to a positively charged object. When the two charges connect, the electrical current forms the lightning bolt. The closer the electrically charged object on Earth is to the stepped leader of the lightning, the easier it is for the lightning to become attracted to it. This is how people, telephone poles, trees, houses and other objects become struck by lightning.

    Myths

    • Contrary to the common myth, lightning can, in fact, strike twice, "National Geographic" declares. If lightning becomes attracted to the same electrically charged object on the Earth's surface, the stepped leader can create the same current and cause the object to once again be struck.

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