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.
Appears in Preprints, 18 th AMS Conf. Severe Local Storms (San Francisco, CA), 19-23 February 1996, Amer. Meteor. Soc., 471-473. Typos and other minor problems have been fixed in this Web version.
Perkins, Ceri. "Dark Lightning Sheds Light on Gamma-ray Mystery." physicsworld.com. N.p., 17 Apr. 2013. Web. 7 Apr. 2014.
National Weather Service. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, 5 Jan. 2010. Web. 2 Feb. 2010. .
Steiger, Scott M., Robert Hamilton, Jason Keeler, and Richard E. Orville. "Lake-Effect Thunderstorms in the Lower Great Lakes." Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology 48.5 (2009): 889-902. Print.
As evening approached, several thunderstorms began to take on the characteristics of a supercell thunderstorm. Supercells, which are intense, broadly rotating thunderstorms, are the most v...
Most people growing up have seen the iconic image of Franklin and his son holding the string of a kite while in a thunderstorm. This experiment allowed him to prove the electrical nature of lightening by trapping it in a jar. Another great invention of his was the lightening rod which would allow a building or structure to take a lightening strike and not burn to the ground. The theory behind this invention was to have a pointed metal rod pointed into the air and have a wire attached to it running to the ground. Doing this would allow the electricity from the lightening strike to follow the wire and safely into the ground. These rods are still being utilized today on all types of structures (Chaplin, 2007).
On July 13, 1977 around 8:37 pm, a thunder from the sky, it left a huge arc in the night sky, its feeling like the beginning of a kind of fantasy novel. The West Chester wire was hit by a lightning bolt, New York City and its eastern suburbs stuck up for twenty-five hours darkness. As the alternative power supply failed to the wires at that time, New York City generators were shut down. The whole New York area was in a darkness, around eight million people had no electricity available. New Yorkers were forced to pass a "horrible night".
Before any great piano player plays a piece, he warms up. He practices. In a similar sense, so does a thunderstorm. A storm does not start out heavy and powerful; it starts out with a wind. And, the air gets a little cooler; the degrees go down on the thermometer. Powerful thunder vibrates the soul, and the earth is the piano for the persona of the storm.
During this short voyage I saw the lightnings playing on the summit of Mount Blanc in the most beautiful figures. The storm appeared to approach rapidly; and, on landing, I ascended a low hill, that I might observe its progress. It advanced; the heavens were clouded, and I soon felt the rain coming slowly in large drops, but its violence quickly increased. (49)
Does a flash at night makes you shut your eyes and cover your ears? I do. I remember a night of restless sleep, with huge a thunderstorm roaring from outside and I was lying on bed with a fever. It was cold, and because of the voice of thunder I couldn’t stay calm. I was scared and as I tried to peek at the window, an intense lightning bolt flashed, and a clash of thunder followed by. I was horrified and felt something humongous must produce thunder like he is mad. Throughout history, many stories and myth serve a common goal to the listeners. The monsters appear in the stories you heard is a way to teach you a lesson or give warning. From what I learned and read in class, monsters tend to be a thing that we created or fear of. To the Native Indians of United States, Thunderbird is a being that use in stories as a way to explain unique natural phenomenon such as lighting, thunder, and storms.
In 1910, Arthur Eddington, a British Astrophysicist, discovered solar winds. Solar winds are basically a continuous flow (they are never ending basically) of particles from the sun. They are also known as stellar winds. Their usual way out of the sun is the coronal holes. Their main cause is an expansion of gases in the corona, which is the outer layer of the sun. The idea that the corona is plasma was thought of by Richard C. Carrington. The temperature of the corona is 2,200,000 degrees Celsius. It is so hot that not even the sun’s gravity can contain it. It heats gases and makes them expand. The gas items run into each other as they are heated. As a result, they lose their electrons. Then, the atoms become ions with a positive charge, the electrons and ions (which are mostly Hydrogen ions) make up the solar wind. The velocity of solar winds goes from 250 to 1000 kilometers every second. It has a density of 82 ions for every cubic inch, or 5 ions per cubic centimeter. Solar winds are the cause of many occurrences in the solar system like Mercury having no atmosphere, and Venus’ acidic, radiation filled clouds. They are also known as electrically charged hurricanes.
2. The USA Today Tornado Information site also indicates that there are three key conditions for thunderstorms to form.
Tornado safety and preparedness are key to protecting your loved ones during a tornado. So far there has been no evidence that tornadoes pick up objects and move it to Oz, but we do know they can lift enormous objects and cause billions of dollars in damage. It is important to remember that two percent of all tornadoes are severe and most well built homes can withstand the brutal punishment. The next time nature’s fury strikes in your city, you will be well aware of the raw power of the tornado. Nothing is guaranteeing your survival but since you are ready for impact, you have just tripled your chances. In the words of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, “there is no place like home, there is no place like home.” If you are prepared!
Web. The Web. The Web. March 26, 2014 Ncdc.noaa.gov. Web.