Where Does Lightning Really Come From?
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The most common question that is often asked by anyone especially curious individuals during a bad thunderstorm is, "Where does lightning and thunder really come from?".
Lightning can be describe as "flashes of lights" across the sky while the terrible loud noise that comes after it is called the "thunder".
Based from the Greek and Norse Mythology, lightning and thunder is being caused by powerful gods. The Greek god who controls lightning and thunder is Zeus while in Norse is the mighty Thor. To tell you, many people in the ancient period of time do used to believed into these mythological gods.
How Exactly are Lightning and Thunder Created?
Through scientific discoveries, it was finally proven that there is no mythological being or powerful entity sitting behind those thick clouds from the sky causing terrible lightning strikes down onto the ground. Scientists had found out that lightning are created through combinations of different natural elements from the clouds.
To explain things better, what do you often observe before a thunderstorm is about to start?
Before a thunderstorm is about to start, you will notice a significant change in your surrounding environment. You will notice from the sky that a group of dark clouds tends to overlap the white clouds. As a result, your environment becomes slightly dim then flashes of lightning and loud thunder are created.
The scientific explanation about the creation of lightning starts from the dark clouds. Those dark clouds are composed of "highly charged electrons".
What is an electron?
Electron is a natural element containing a very tiny piece of electricity. It's too tiny that it barely doesn't have any mass. In fact, an electron is still way too small to be observed from a microscope.
Just like the characteristic of a magnet, dark clouds have positive and negative charges. Thus, clouds with negative charges are attracted to the clouds with positive charges. Another instance is that, clouds with negative charges can also be attracted from the positive charges on the ground.
There are actually several different types of lightning that has been discovered by the scientists. The majority of them are rarely observe from the sky while others are taking place from the outer space. Anyway, let's just stick to those common types of lightning that are often observe during thunderstorm.
1. Cloud-to-Ground Lightning
The most common and best understood type of lightning is the "Cloud-to-Ground" lightning. As the name imply, the lightning-strike originates from the cloud stretching out reaching the ground surface of the Earth. Due to this characteristic of cloud-to-ground lightning, scientists are able to conduct experiments and studies about how lightning are formed.
As already mentioned above, dark clouds are composed of positive and negative electrons inside them. Inside the cloud, the positive electrons gets separated from the negative electrons. They separate in a manner where the positive electrons goes to the top portion of the cloud while the negative electrons falls below the bottom portion.
From the ground, positively charged electrons also tends to rise up. They rise up travelling through tall objects such as trees, poles, buildings and other structures.
Now, if it happens that a negatively charged cloud comes close to a certain tall object that is positively charged, a force of attraction occurs between them where lightning is created.
2. Cloud-to-Cloud
"Cloud-to-Cloud" type of lightning is more about lightning that takes place from the sky. As the name imply, this type of lightning occurs between two separate clouds.
You have to know that not all dark clouds are floating on the same level from the sky. There are higher clouds that floats above lower clouds.
As mentioned from the cloud-to-ground type of lightning, each cloud from the sky contains their own positive and negative electrons. And, it is their natural characteristics that the positive electrons rises to the top portion of the cloud while the negative electrons falls at the bottom.
To explain how a cloud-to-cloud lightning occurs, it takes place when a cloud at a lower level gets close or align from another cloud at a higher level. Since the cloud at a higher level has its negative particles at its bottom while the cloud at the lower level has its positive particles on its top portion, a force of attraction occurs which result in the creation of lightning.
3. Ground-to-Cloud
"Ground-to-Cloud" type of lightning is basically the same as the cloud-to-ground type of lightning. The only difference is that, the lightning originates from the ground. The explanation into this difference is it actually depends on the source of the "discharge".
You have to know that the discharge of the negative and positive charges can either take place from the cloud or from the ground. But in most cases, it usually happens from the cloud.
Separation of the Protons and Electrons
The positive charges within the clouds are specifically called "protons" while the negative charges are called "electrons". And, it is actually their natural characteristics that they tend to get separated apart. To explain this behavior, inside the cloud are particles such as snow and ice. As the cloud moves, these elements are also forced to move around causing "friction" which results in the separation of the protons from the electrons. The protons go at the top and the electrons at the bottom portion of the cloud.
The electrons at the bottom of the cloud has the capability to repel all electrons on the ground while it attracts the protons. When attraction between the electrons from the cloud and the protons from the ground is strong enough, lightning will occur out from the discharge of the electrons.
The thunder that comes after lightning is actually created by the lightning itself. What happens is that, when a lightning-strike had occurred, the surrounding air gets heated at extremely high temperature which is estimated to be around 50, 000 degrees Fahrenheit. To give you an idea on how hot it is, it's three times hotter than the surface of the sun.
What happens next is that, when the heated air starts to get cool into its normal temperature, it produces some kind of vacuum surrounding the path of the lightning. As this takes place, nearby air will also rapidly expands and contracts. As a result, vibration occurs which produces the cracking sound.
After the vibration, the sound emitted by the process echoes and reverberates that generate the loud and rumbling sound which is the thunder. This explains the reason why thunder always comes after lightning.
Thunder can be heard at around 10 miles or more from the distance where the lightning had occurred.
Moreover, the simplest way to explain about where does lightning come from is to compare it from the "static electricity". A type of electricity that is often observed and experienced on your daily life. This subject will be covered on another separate post.
Lightning can be describe as "flashes of lights" across the sky while the terrible loud noise that comes after it is called the "thunder".
Based from the Greek and Norse Mythology, lightning and thunder is being caused by powerful gods. The Greek god who controls lightning and thunder is Zeus while in Norse is the mighty Thor. To tell you, many people in the ancient period of time do used to believed into these mythological gods.
How Exactly are Lightning and Thunder Created?
Through scientific discoveries, it was finally proven that there is no mythological being or powerful entity sitting behind those thick clouds from the sky causing terrible lightning strikes down onto the ground. Scientists had found out that lightning are created through combinations of different natural elements from the clouds.
To explain things better, what do you often observe before a thunderstorm is about to start?
Before a thunderstorm is about to start, you will notice a significant change in your surrounding environment. You will notice from the sky that a group of dark clouds tends to overlap the white clouds. As a result, your environment becomes slightly dim then flashes of lightning and loud thunder are created.
The scientific explanation about the creation of lightning starts from the dark clouds. Those dark clouds are composed of "highly charged electrons".
What is an electron?
Electron is a natural element containing a very tiny piece of electricity. It's too tiny that it barely doesn't have any mass. In fact, an electron is still way too small to be observed from a microscope.
Just like the characteristic of a magnet, dark clouds have positive and negative charges. Thus, clouds with negative charges are attracted to the clouds with positive charges. Another instance is that, clouds with negative charges can also be attracted from the positive charges on the ground.
Common Types of Lightning
There are actually several different types of lightning that has been discovered by the scientists. The majority of them are rarely observe from the sky while others are taking place from the outer space. Anyway, let's just stick to those common types of lightning that are often observe during thunderstorm.
1. Cloud-to-Ground Lightning
The most common and best understood type of lightning is the "Cloud-to-Ground" lightning. As the name imply, the lightning-strike originates from the cloud stretching out reaching the ground surface of the Earth. Due to this characteristic of cloud-to-ground lightning, scientists are able to conduct experiments and studies about how lightning are formed.
As already mentioned above, dark clouds are composed of positive and negative electrons inside them. Inside the cloud, the positive electrons gets separated from the negative electrons. They separate in a manner where the positive electrons goes to the top portion of the cloud while the negative electrons falls below the bottom portion.
From the ground, positively charged electrons also tends to rise up. They rise up travelling through tall objects such as trees, poles, buildings and other structures.
Now, if it happens that a negatively charged cloud comes close to a certain tall object that is positively charged, a force of attraction occurs between them where lightning is created.
2. Cloud-to-Cloud
"Cloud-to-Cloud" type of lightning is more about lightning that takes place from the sky. As the name imply, this type of lightning occurs between two separate clouds.
You have to know that not all dark clouds are floating on the same level from the sky. There are higher clouds that floats above lower clouds.
As mentioned from the cloud-to-ground type of lightning, each cloud from the sky contains their own positive and negative electrons. And, it is their natural characteristics that the positive electrons rises to the top portion of the cloud while the negative electrons falls at the bottom.
To explain how a cloud-to-cloud lightning occurs, it takes place when a cloud at a lower level gets close or align from another cloud at a higher level. Since the cloud at a higher level has its negative particles at its bottom while the cloud at the lower level has its positive particles on its top portion, a force of attraction occurs which result in the creation of lightning.
3. Ground-to-Cloud
"Ground-to-Cloud" type of lightning is basically the same as the cloud-to-ground type of lightning. The only difference is that, the lightning originates from the ground. The explanation into this difference is it actually depends on the source of the "discharge".
You have to know that the discharge of the negative and positive charges can either take place from the cloud or from the ground. But in most cases, it usually happens from the cloud.
Separation of the Protons and Electrons
The positive charges within the clouds are specifically called "protons" while the negative charges are called "electrons". And, it is actually their natural characteristics that they tend to get separated apart. To explain this behavior, inside the cloud are particles such as snow and ice. As the cloud moves, these elements are also forced to move around causing "friction" which results in the separation of the protons from the electrons. The protons go at the top and the electrons at the bottom portion of the cloud.
The electrons at the bottom of the cloud has the capability to repel all electrons on the ground while it attracts the protons. When attraction between the electrons from the cloud and the protons from the ground is strong enough, lightning will occur out from the discharge of the electrons.
Where Does Thunder Come from?
The thunder that comes after lightning is actually created by the lightning itself. What happens is that, when a lightning-strike had occurred, the surrounding air gets heated at extremely high temperature which is estimated to be around 50, 000 degrees Fahrenheit. To give you an idea on how hot it is, it's three times hotter than the surface of the sun.
What happens next is that, when the heated air starts to get cool into its normal temperature, it produces some kind of vacuum surrounding the path of the lightning. As this takes place, nearby air will also rapidly expands and contracts. As a result, vibration occurs which produces the cracking sound.
After the vibration, the sound emitted by the process echoes and reverberates that generate the loud and rumbling sound which is the thunder. This explains the reason why thunder always comes after lightning.
Thunder can be heard at around 10 miles or more from the distance where the lightning had occurred.
Moreover, the simplest way to explain about where does lightning come from is to compare it from the "static electricity". A type of electricity that is often observed and experienced on your daily life. This subject will be covered on another separate post.
