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Lightning is a giant spark of electricity in the atmosphere between clouds, the air, or the ground. In the early stages of development, air acts as an insulator between the positive and negative charges in the cloud and between the cloud and the ground.
- Damaging Winds Basics
Basic information about severe wind, from the NOAA National...
- Types
In the most common type of cloud-to-ground lightning (CG), a...
- Forecasting
What we do: NSSL and partners are working on an experimental...
- Detection
Severe Weather 101 Lightning Detection Lightning Detection...
- FAQ
Lightning from thunderstorms begins in a strong electric...
- Winter Weather Basics
What we do: NSSL researchers studied winter thunderstorms...
- Damaging Winds Basics
- How Thunderstorms Develop
- How Lightning Forms
- Thunder
All thunderstorms go through stages of growth, development, electrification and dissipation. Thunderstorms often begin to develop early in the day when the sun heats the air near the ground and pockets of warmer air start to rise in the atmosphere. When these pockets of air reach a certain level in the atmosphere, cumulus clouds start to form. Cont...
Lightning is a giant spark of electricity in the atmosphere or between the atmosphere and the ground. In the initial stages of development, air acts as an insulator between the positive and negative charges in the cloud and between the cloud and the ground; however, when the differences in charges becomes too great, this insulating capacity of the ...
Thunder is the sound made by a flash of lightning. As lightning passes through the air it heats the air quickly. This causes the air to expand rapidly and creates the sound wave we hear as thunder. Normally, you can hear thunder about 10 miles from a lightning strike. Since lightning can strike outward 10 miles from a thunderstorm, if you hear thun...
Lightning from thunderstorms begins in a strong electric field between opposite charges within the storm cloud, and can stay completely within the cloud (intra-cloud lightning) when the charge regions are similar strength (balanced) or can reach the ground (cloud-to-ground lightning) when one of the regions is much stronger than the other ...
Jan 9, 2022 · The first detailed observations of lightning's emergence inside a cloud have exposed how electric fields grow strong enough to let bolts fly.
Oct 1, 2005 · Of course, lightning does occur inside thunderclouds, so clearly we must be missing something about how lightning gets started. Several ideas have been suggested, including colliding raindrops...
Lightning is one of the top three storm-related killers in the United States. It is also one of the least understood weather phenomena. Learn more about lightning science at the links below.
People also ask
What is lightning & how does it work?
What happens if lightning hits a cloud?
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What is cloud-to-ground lightning?
Oct 19, 2018 · WHAT IS LIGHTNING? Lightning is the electrical discharge between positively and negatively charged regions within clouds. The electrical discharge serves as an equalization process between the charged regions, and can travel from cloud-to-cloud, cloud-to-ground, or cloud-to-air.
