When do lightning occur

In addition, ground current can travels in garage floors with conductive materials. Because the ground current affects a much larger area than the other causes of lightning casualties, the ground current causes the most lightning deaths and injuries.

Ground current also kills many farm animals. The greater the distance between contact points, the greater the potential for death or serious injury.

Because large farm animals have a relatively large body-span, ground current from a nearby lightning strike is often fatal to livestock. Lightning can travel long distances in wires or other metal surfaces. Metal does not attract lightning, but it provides a path for the lightning to follow. Most indoor lightning casualties and some outdoor casualties are due to conduction.

The final stage of development occurs as the top of the cloud becomes anvil-shaped. As a thunderstorm cloud grows, precipitation forms within the cloud.

A well-developed thunderstorm cloud contains mostly small ice crystals in the upper levels of the cloud, a mixture of small ice crystals and small hail in the middle levels of the cloud, and a mixture of rain and melting hail in the lower levels of the cloud.

Air movements and collisions between the various types of precipitation in the middle of the cloud cause the precipitation particles to become charged. The lighter ice crystals become positively charged and are carried upward into the upper part of the storm by rising air.

The heavier hail becomes negatively charged and is either suspended by the rising air or falls toward the lower part of the storm. These collisions and air movements cause the top of the thunderstorm cloud to become positively charged and the middle and lower part of the storm to become negatively charged. In addition, a small positive charge develops near the bottom of the thunderstorm cloud. The negative charge in the middle of thunderstorm cloud causes the ground underneath to become positively charged, and the positively charged anvil causes the ground under the anvil to become negatively charged.

Lightning is a giant spark of electricity in the atmosphere or between the atmosphere and the ground. Small negatively charged particles called electrons are knocked off some ice and added to other ice as they crash past each other. The top of the cloud becomes positively charged while the base of the cloud becomes negatively charged. Once the negative charge at the bottom of the cloud gets large enough, a flow of negative charge called a stepped leader rushes toward the Earth.

The positive charges at the ground are attracted to the stepped leader, so positive charge flows upward from the ground. When the stepped leader and the positive charge meet, a strong electric current carries positive charge up into the cloud. This electric current is known as the return stroke. Do not lay flat, because it can give lightning a better chance of strike you.

How far away can you see lightning and hear thunder? Within those distant thunderstorms, the lightning bolts can be seen as much as miles from us, depending on the height of the bolt, the clarity of the air, and our elevation. Thunder, in comparison, has a much shorter range of detection - usually less than 15 miles in a quiet rural setting and under 5 miles in a noisy city environment.

Why are you less likely to see static electricity in the summer? In the summer, our dew points are much higher due to warm and humid air coming from the Gulf of Mexico and that is why we have humid weather.

In the winter, our dew points are much lower due to cold and direr air coming from Canada. The lower the dew point the better it is to create static electricity, so that's why you see it more in the winter.

What is cloud-to-ground lightning? All lightning is dangerous, but cloud-to-ground lightning is the most dangerous type of lightning. Most cloud-to-ground lightning strikes come from the negatively charged bottom of the cloud traveling to the positively charged ground below. Cloud-to-ground lightning bolts strike the tall objects, like trees and buildings. These lightning strikes can cause fire and property damage.

If you're the tallest object, then lighting can strike you. Lightning is the second weather related killed. What is intracloud lightning? Intracloud lightning is the most common type of lightning. This occurs when there are both positive and negative charges within the same cloud. Usually, the process takes place within the cloud and looks like a bright flash of light which flickers. What is intercloud lightning? Intercloud lightning is less common.

It's when a lightning strike occurs when there are positive and negative charges within different clouds and the strike travels in the air between them. What is forked lightning? Forked lighting appears as jagged lines of light. They can have several branches.

Forked lightning can be seen shooting from the clouds to the ground, from one cloud to another cloud, or from a cloud out into the air. This lightning can strike up to 10 miles away from a thunderstorm.

What is sheet lightning? Sheet lightning appears as flashes of light that seem to light up or illuminate entire clouds. What is heat lightning? Heat lightning is a term used to describe lightning flashes that are too far away from you to hear the thunder.

The reason that it is called heat lightning is that it appears most often on a hot summer day when the sky is clear overhead.