Lightning how does it form

You just touched a metal doorknob after shuffling your rubber-soled feet across the carpet. You've been struck by lightning! Well, not really, but it's the same idea. Your rubber-soled shoes picked up stray electrons from the carpet. Those electrons built up on your shoes giving them a static charge. Static means not moving. Static charges are always "looking" for the first opportunity to "escape," or discharge.

Your contact with a metal doorknob—or car handle or anything that conducts electricity—presents that opportunity and the excess electrons jump at the chance. So, do thunderclouds have rubber shoes? Not exactly, but there is a lot of shuffling going on inside the cloud. The top of the cloud becomes positively charged while the base of the cloud becomes negatively charged. Once the negative charge at the bottom of the cloud gets large enough, a flow of negative charge called a stepped leader rushes toward the Earth.

The positive charges at the ground are attracted to the stepped leader, so positive charge flows upward from the ground. When the stepped leader and the positive charge meet, a strong electric current carries positive charge up into the cloud.

This electric current is known as the return stroke. We see it as the bright flash of a lightning bolt. About one to 20 cloud-to-ground lightning bolts is "positive lightning," a type that originates in the positively charged tops of stormclouds. These strikes reverse the charge flow of typical lightning bolts and are far stronger and more destructive.

Positive lightning can stretch across the sky and strike "out of the blue" more than 10 miles from the storm cloud where it was born. About 2, people are killed worldwide by lightning each year. Hundreds more survive strikes but suffer from a variety of lasting symptoms, including memory loss, dizziness, weakness, numbness, and other life-altering ailments. Strikes can cause cardiac arrest and severe burns, but 9 of every 10 people survive. The average American has about a 1 in 5, chance of being struck by lightning during a lifetime.

Lightning's extreme heat will vaporize the water inside a tree, creating steam that may blow the tree apart. Cars are havens from lightning—but not for the reason that most believe. Tires conduct current, as do metal frames that carry a charge harmlessly to the ground.

Many houses are grounded by rods and other protection that conduct a lightning bolt's electricity harmlessly to the ground. Homes may also be inadvertently grounded by plumbing, gutters, or other materials. Grounded buildings offer protection, but occupants who touch running water or use a landline phone may be shocked by conducted electricity. A supercell thunderstorm strikes in South Dakota. Among the most severe storms, supercells can bring strong winds, hail, and even tornadoes.

See more extreme weather pictures. All lightning is dangerous, but cloud-to-ground lightning is the most dangerous type of lightning. Most cloud-to-ground lightning strikes come from the negatively charged bottom of the cloud traveling to the positively charged ground below.

Cloud-to-ground lightning bolts strike the tall objects, like trees and buildings. These lightning strikes can cause fire and property damage. Lightning is the second weather related killed. What is cloud-to-air lightning? Cloud-to-air lightning is referred to a discharge or portion of a discharge jumping from a cloud into clear air.

Technically speaking, all cloud-to-ground lightning strikes contain cloud-to-air components in the many branches that extend away from the main channel and terminate abruptly in mid-air. However, the most visually dramatic examples of cloud-to-air lightning occur when a long, bright lightning channel jumps out of the side of a cumulonimbus cloud and terminates in the clear air surrounding the storm.

What is intracloud lightning? Intracloud lightning is the most common type of lightning. This occurs when there are both positive and negative charges within the same cloud. Usually, the process takes place within the cloud and looks like a bright flash of light which flickers.

What is intercloud lightning? Intercloud lightning is less common. What is an anvil crawler? An anvil crawler is lightning that branches upward and outward like a tree along the tops and sides of large thunderstorms. Anvil crawlers are sometimes referred to as spider lightning.

What is forked lightning? Forked lighting appears as jagged lines of light. They can have several branches. Forked lightning can be seen shooting from the clouds to the ground, from one cloud to another cloud, or from a cloud out into the air. This lightning can strike up to 10 miles away from a thunderstorm. What is sheet lightning? Sheet lightning appears as flashes of light that seem to light up or illuminate entire clouds.

What is heat lightning? Heat lightning is a term used to describe lightning flashes that are too far away from you to hear the thunder. The reason that it is called heat lightning is that it appears most often on a hot summer day when the sky is clear overhead. What is high-altitude lightning? What is ribbon lightning?

Ribbon lightning is when a bolt of lightning separates due to wind and appears as parallel lightning streaks. What is chain or bead lightning? Chain or bead lightning is when a lightning bolt is broken into dotted lines while fading.

What is ball lightning? Ball lightning is a rare form of lightning. It usually appears as a reddish, luminous ball, but can come in any color. Ball lightning is usually spherical in shape and about one foot in diameter.

Hissing noises originate from such balls and they sometimes make a loud noise when they explode. What is St. 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. What is anvil lightning? 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. It is illuminated brightly by the return stroke. 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.