Lightning

1967 Words4 Pages

INTRODUCTION I remember when I was a young child; I would always be scared whenever there was a severe storm outside that included thunder and lightning. This was especially true in the hours of darkness, when you could really see the lightning. As I grew older this so-called fear of lightning turned into a fascination for this weather phenomena. One of my most vivid memories of lightning as a young man was when I was flying to Florida, the plane was at an altitude above a thunderstorm, that was producing heavy lightning, watching the flashing of the lightning popping off as we flew above the clouds, it was one of the most amazing and beautiful things I have ever seen. I believe it was at this point that my fascination with lightning began. To this day I love a good thunderstorm that produces multiple lightning strikes. In my term paper I will attempt to take an in depth look at lightning, explaining what causes lightning, the ideal conditions that turn a storm into an electrical storm, and attempt to explain just exactly how does lightning work. And explain and/or dispel some of the rumors that surround lightning. Main Body Dictionary.com defines lighting as a brilliant electrical spark discharge in the atmosphere occurring within a thundercloud, between thunderclouds, or between the ground and a cloud (dictionary.com). When there is a great imbalance between positive and negative charges in the atmosphere an electrical discharge takes place, this electrical discharge is classified as lightning. (http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/natural-disasters/lightning-profile/) About 80% of all lightning occurs between clouds, with the other 20% occurring between the ground and clouds. Lighting events also generate a great amount of heat, which can be upwards to five times the temperature of the surface of the sun, or about 54,000 degrees F. It is this rapid heating of the air around the bolt of lightning that produces a shock wave, which in turn becomes a sound wave that we know of as thunder....

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...While lightning can be dangerous, it does not detract from the beauty of watching a good lightning storm, as long as you are safely indoors or out of harm's way. In the preceding pages, I have explained how and why lightning is formed in a cloud, what causes it to strike, and how the conductive path is obtained, as well as dispelling a few myths. Sources: - http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/natural-disasters/lightning.htm - http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/natural-disasters/lightning-profile/ - http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/lightning - http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/ - Ahrens, C. Donald.

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