Lightning

This week we've had some pretty BIG thunderstorms. I know it may not be as interesting to you as it is to me, but nevertheless I've uploaded some pictures/video, including some information about lightning / thunderstorms.

I started to think to myself..."What do I know about lightning other than that it is a form of electricity?" I've came to find out that it is actually a giant electrical spark that is caused by the ice and water in a cloud, rubbing together and causing static electricity. Now that's the simple explaination.

Here are some interesting facts about lightning:

• Hits temperatures of 50,432 degrees fahrenheit
• Contain 100 million electrical volts
• Each spark can reach more than 5 miles
• Lightning kills more people than hurricanes or tornadoes.
• Lightning can heat up the sap in the tree’s trunk. The sap becomes steam, which expands and, wham! Kablooey! The tree blows apart.
• Lightning does strike twice, and sometimes more.
• Park ranger Roy Sullivan holds the record for surviving lightning strikes. Between 1942 and his death in 1983, he was struck seven times. The first lightning strike shot through Sullivan's leg and knocked off his big toenail. That’s gotta hurt.
• You can't hear thunder when it comes from a form of lightning called Heat Lightning which is over 10 miles away and occurs most frequently during the Summer months (which was exactly what I experienced).
• The safest place to be is in a building, away from the windows, or in a metallic, conductive cage like a car or an (aluminum) airplane. These act as Faraday-cages.

Here are the types of Lightning...
Intracloud lightning, sheet lightning, anvil crawlers
Cloud-to-ground lightning, anvil-to-ground lightning
Bead lightning, ribbon lightning, staccato lightning
Cloud-to-cloud lightning
Cloud-to-ground lightning
Heat lightning or summer lightning
Ball lightning
Sprites, elves, jets, and other upper atmospheric lightning
Streak lightning
Triggered lightning
Lightning throughout the Solar System

To view my entire collection of photos taken during that storm,
Simply click on this image below and watch the slideshow...



Here is a video clip of an electrical storm over-head, CRAZY!!
* This video is in fast motion.

Thunder

Here is the simple explaination for Thunder... well that's just the electric current passing through the discharge channels rapidly heats and expands the air into plasma, producing acoustic shock waves (thunder) in the atmosphere.

Historical Understanding of Thunder...
The cause of thunder has been the subject of centuries of speculation and scientific enquiry. The first recorded theory is attributed to Aristotle in the third century BC, and an early speculation was that it was caused by the collision of clouds. Subsequently numerous other theories have been proposed. By the mid-19th century, the accepted theory was that lightning produced a vacuum along its path, and that thunder was caused by the subsequent motion of air rushing to fill the vacuum. Later in the 19th century it was believed that thunder was caused by an explosion of steam when water along the lightning channel was heated. Another theory was that gaseous materials were created by lightning and then exploded. In the 20th century a consensus evolved that thunder must begin with a shockwave in the air due to the sudden thermal expansion of the plasma in the lightning channel.

Video Clip: This video clip was taken just outside of my apartment at about 9:15am this morning. I've heard the close crackling of thunder before, but this was just a BLAST! It was honestly the loudest thunder I've ever heard! As you watch the video clip you'll notice that at about 7 seconds into the video you'll hear one thunder blast which had me shaking in my boots alittle. The second thunder blast happens at about the 49 seconds, and although you don't see it, if that camera were faced at me you would have seen me looking quite pale and crouched down. It's sort of funny now looking back, because during this thunder blast I could sense my primitive brain saying, "Get the f__ out of there!" If you can catch the lightning flash reflecting off the building, and compare that with the thunder blast, you'll realize just how close the lightning must have been.

*Make sure your volume is turned up high enough to get the feeling of it.