How is lightning produced

Elmo's Fire? Elmo's Fire appears as a blue or greenish glow above pointed objects on the ground. It is created when tiny positively charged sparks reach up in response to negatively charges in the air or clouds above the ground. If a thunderstorm is nearby, St. Elmo's Fire might be seen right before a lightning strike. What is anvil lightning? Anvil lightning is a type of lightning referred to as "the bolt from the blue" because it often appears suddenly from a seemingly cloudless sky.

A bolt at the top of a thunderstorm arcs away from the main cloud and strikes the ground where the skies above often appear clear. Can you tell how far away a storm is? Yes, you can use thunder to tell how far away a storm is.

Next time you see a storm, count the number of seconds between when you see the lightning and hear the thunder. Take the number of seconds and divide by 5 and that will tell you how far away the storm is in miles.

For example: If you counted 10 seconds between the lightning and the thunder, the lightning is 2 miles away! A leader reaches from the cloud to the ground below, looking for positive charges. This return stroke releases tremendous energy, bright light and thunder. They are created when leaders are created and reach from the ground to the sky looking for a leader to connect with. Know the Facts A lightning flash is no more than one inch wide. What we see as a flash of lightning may actually be four different strokes in exactly the same place, one right after another.

That's why lightning appears to flicker. Click Here to see if there are any active warnings in your area. Look for darkening skies, flashes of lightning, or increasing winds. If you hear the sound of thunder, go to a safe place immediately. The best place to go is a sturdy building or a car, but make sure the windows in the car are shut. Avoid sheds, picnic areas, baseball dugouts and bleachers.

If there is no shelter around you, stay away from trees. Crouch down in the open area, keeping twice as far away from a tree as far as it is tall. Put your feet together and place your hands over your ears to minimize hearing damage from thunder.

Swimming, wading, snorkeling and scuba diving are not safe. Stay away from clotheslines, fences, and drop your backpacks because they often have metal on them. Lightning Activities Lightning Experiment: Here is a great experiment that allows kids to make lightning in their mouth.

It's a great way for them to understand how lightning works. Lightning Experiment: Here is a great experiment that allows the kids to make lightning. All you need is a balloon and a light bulb! Lightning Experiment: Here is another great experiment that allows the kids to make lightning. This teaches kids about the positive and negative charges and where they come from.

Static Electricity Experiment: Here is an experiment that allows the kids to learn about static electricity by sticking a balloon to a wall. Static Electricity Experiment: Here is another static electricity experiment that bends water. Static Electricity Experiment: Here is yet another static electricity experiment with using a balloon and your hair. Thunder Experiment: This experiment allows kids to make thunder, in a way that allows them to understand how it is made by lightning.

Thunderstorm Experiment: Here is a great way to teach kids how to track a thunderstorm. Thunderstorm Experiment: Here is a great experiment that shows kids how our weather works. It teaches them how thunderstorms are formed! Science Fair Project Ideas: Here is a complete list of science fair project ideas.

We see it as the bright flash of a lightning bolt. Thunder and lightning occur at roughly the same time although you see the flash of lightning before you hear the thunder.

This is because light travels much faster than sound. Lightning happens when the negative charges electrons in the bottom of the cloud are attracted to the positive charges protons in the ground.

The accumulation of electric charges has to be great enough to overcome the insulating properties of air. When this happens, a stream of negative charges pours down towards a high point where positive charges have clustered due to the pull of the thunderhead.

The connection is made and the protons rush up to meet the electrons. It is at that point that we see lightning and hear thunder. A bolt of lightning heats the air along its path causing it to expand rapidly. As the air rises, water vapour cools and forms a cloud. When air continues to rise, the cloud gets bigger and bigger. In the tops of the clouds, temperature is below freezing and the water vapour turns into ice. Now, the cloud becomes a thundercloud.

Lots of small bits of ice bump into each other as they move around. All these collisions cause a build up of electrical charge. Eventually, the whole cloud fills up with electrical charges. Lighter, positively charged particles form at the top of the cloud. Heavier, negatively charged particles sink to the bottom of the cloud. When the positive and negative charges grow large enough, a giant spark - lightning - occurs between the two charges within the cloud. This is like a static electricity sparks you see, but much bigger.

Most lightning happens inside a cloud, but sometimes it happens between the cloud and the ground. A build up of positive charge builds up on the ground beneath the cloud, attracted to the negative charge in the bottom of the cloud.

The ground's positive charge concentrates around anything that sticks up - trees, lightning conductors, even people! The positive charge from the ground connects with the negative charge from the clouds and a spark of lightning strikes.