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Sep 28, 2023 · The entire thunderstorm life cycle from growing cumulus cloud to dissipated storm takes an hour on average with less than 30 minutes of thunder and lightning. If it lasts longer then there is more than one storm cloud present.
Thunder lasts longer than lightning due to the time it takes for the sound to travel from different parts of the lightning channel. The intensity and type of sound heard by the listener...
Thunder and lightning are associated with convective clouds and are often accompanied by heavy rain or hail. A thunderstorm is a series of sudden electrical discharges resulting from...
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While the flashes we see as a result of a lightning strike travel at the speed of light (670,000,000 mph) an actual lightning strike travels at a comparatively gentle 270,000 mph. This means it would take about 55 minutes to travel to the moon, or around 1.5 seconds to get from London to Bristol.
When lightning strikes sand or sandy soil, it fuses together the grains to create a small glass-like tube known as a fulgurite. They are not only prized by collectors, they are also of great scientific value in demonstrating past occurrence of lightning storms.
Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela is the place on Earth that receives the most lightning strikes. Massive thunderstorms occur on 140-160 nights per year with an average of 28 lightning strikes per minute lasting up to 10 hours at a time. That's as many as 40,000 lightning strikes in one night!
Recent research from the Met Office revealed that helicopters can cause an isolated lightning strike. While flying, the helicopter acquires a negative charge, so if it flies close to an area that is positively charged (e.g. hail or a positively charged part of a cumulonimbus cloud) it can trigger a lightning strike.
Lightning is one of nature's most recurrent and common spectacles. Around the world, there are over 3,000,000 flashes every day. That's around 44 strikes every second.
Trees can often be destroyed by lightning strikes. When lightning hits a tree, it usually travels just below the tree's bark where there is a layer of sap and water. This layer becomes instantly heated and expands causing the bark to be blasted off the tree and sometimes splitting the wood.
While nitrogen is in the air all around us, for plants to be able to absorb it (a process vital for their growth) they rely on a process called Nitrogen fixation. Although much of this process is done by bacteria and algae, the extreme heat of a lightning strike causes nitrogen to bond with oxygen to create nitrogen oxides which combine with moistu...
While the intensity of a lightning strike can make them appear as thick bolts across the sky, the actual width of a lightning bolt is only about 2-3 cm. The average length of a lightning bolt is about 2-3 miles. The charge carried down this small channel is so intense that the temperature of the lightning reaches 30,000 °C - that's five times hotte...
While lightning storms are impressive in their own right, they don't quite compare to the spectacle when volcanic eruptions trigger lightning strikes. When an eruption occurs, earth and ash are thrown into the air in a giant plume, colliding to create an electrical charge. In the same way as normal lightning, the imbalance between the plume's elect...
To tell how far away a thunderstorm is, simply count the number of seconds between the flash of lightning and the boom of thunder that follows. Divide this number by five and this tells you how many miles away you are from the storm (or divide by three for the distance in kilometres).
Jun 7, 2016 · How long do thunderstorms last? Over the UK, thunderstorms can build in the atmosphere to heights of 12-15km, and typically last no longer than half an hour.
May 23, 2023 · The thunderstorm cell has a distinct life-cycle that lasts about 30 minutes. The Towering Cumulus Stage. A cumulus cloud begins to grow vertically, perhaps to a height of 20,000 feet (6 km). Air within the cloud is dominated by upwardly-moving, warm, moist air currents called updrafts with some turbulent eddies around the edges.
There are about 100,000 thunderstorms each year in the U.S. alone. About 10% of these reach severe levels. When are thunderstorms most likely? Thunderstorms are most likely in the spring and summer months and during the afternoon and evening hours, but they can occur year-round and at all hours.
