Amazing lightning facts

According to Wikipedia,Lightning is a sudden electrostatic discharge that occurs during a thunderstorm. This discharge occurs between electrically charged regions of a cloud (called intra-cloud lightning or IC), between two clouds (CC lightning), or between a cloud and the ground (CG lightning).

Types of lightning: Ball lightning;Bead lightning;Dry lightning;Forked lightning;Heat lightning;Ribbon lightning;Rocket lightning;Sheet lightning;Smooth channel lightning;Staccato lightning;Super bolts;Sympathetic lightning;Clear-air lightning. 

Some facts on lightning :
  • It is about 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit — roughly five times hotter than the surface of the sun!
  • An average lightning bolt can release enough energy to operate a 100-watt light bulb for more than three months straight.
  •  The air between the clouds and Earth blocks the connection — until the charge gets so strong that an electrical impulse called a “stepped leader” shoots down from the cloud.The leader drops in steps of about 150 feet each at about 136,000 mph, until it almost reaches the ground. That’s when an electrical charge called a streamer rises up to meet it and complete the circuit.Then a bolt of electricity streaks back up along the leader’s path at about 62 million mph and creates lightning. More bolts can rise up the same path again right after. Because it all happens so fast, all we see is one bolt of lightning.
  • Lightning can explode a tree.
  •  An average bolt of negative lightning carries an electric current of 30,000 amperes (30 kA), and transfers 15 coulombs of electric charge and 500 megajoules of energy. Large bolts of lightning can carry up to 120 kA and 350 coulombs.
  •  When lightning strikes sand or rock, the extreme heat can fuse minerals beneath the surface into a tube called a fulgurite. Though relatively rare, these "lightning fossils" have been found worldwide.
  •  Catatumbo lightning, as the phenomenon is called, is as spectacular as it sounds, appearing 5 days out of 6, for hours, with up to nearly 30 lightning strikes per minute.
  •  Lightning kills about 2,000 people a year.

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