The wonders of Mother Nature are endless. Some people love bad weather, while others fear it - specifically lightning and thunder.
Today we're going to talk more specifically about thunder, or more specifically lightnings. Thunderstorms one of the most dangerous phenomena, but at the same time so beautiful and spectacular.
Lightning bolts are charged with a tremendous amount of energy. The energy in a lightning bolt can be up to 100 KW and the current in it is from 30,000 to 200,000 amperes.
How many volts can a lightning bolt be?
The electricity between the cloud, which forms the lightning and the ground can reach and exceed 100,000,000 volts. The length of lightning can be between 2.5 - to 20 km, and the speed, which it spreads with can reach 220,000 km/h.
And how are lightnings formed?
Basically, a thunderstorm that is accompanied by thunder and lightning rises from the Earth to the sky at a very high speed. As it rises, it cools and from there rain-bearing clouds are formed, which we have often heard in the weather forecast called cumulus clouds or so-called storm clouds.
Cooling causes the warm air to cool, which, in turn, causes condensation in the cloud, which condensation turns into rain or hail.
When ice forms in the cumulus cloud, it is one of the important factors in the formation of lightning. Storm-bearing clouds in which a certain number and size of ice crystals form may not form lightning. The small particles of water in the cloud that have remained in it and have not turned into rain or hail are converted into ice crystals. Those crystals that are positively charged begin to rise to the top of the storm cloud.
When they reach a precise size, they fall like hail. Unlike the larger ones, the smaller particles still rise upward and thus collide with the larger ice particles. When they collide, this collision removes electrons from those particles that continue to rise, giving them a positive charge and those particles that fall and are larger acquire a negative charge.
Lightning is formed when two electrically charged clouds collide and when they have different charges - positive and negative. After the attraction between the two clouds has become very strong, a current from the one cloud that is descending begins to flow through them. This flow of electricity forms the lightning.
