Lightning - Wikipedia
A typical cloud-to-ground lightning flash culminates in the formation of an electrically conducting plasma channel through the air in excess of 5 km (3.1 mi) tall, from within the cloud to the ground's surface.
Understanding Lightning: Types of Flashes - National Weather Service
There are two main types of lighting: intra-cloud lightning and cloud-to-ground lightning. Intra-cloud lightning is an electrical discharge between oppositely charged areas within the thunderstorm cloud. Cloud-to-ground lightning is a discharge between opposite charges in the cloud and on the ground. Cloud-to-ground lightning can either occur ...
Severe Weather 101: Lightning Types - NOAA National Severe …
There are many flashes which do not reach ground. Most of these remain within the cloud and are called intra-cloud (IC) lightning flashes. Cloud flashes sometimes have visible channels that extend out into the air around the storm (cloud-to-air or CA), but do not strike the ground.
Severe Weather 101: Lightning Basics - NOAA National Severe …
When the opposite charges build up enough, this insulating capacity of the air breaks down and there is a rapid discharge of electricity that we know as lightning. The flash of lightning temporarily equalizes the charged regions in the atmosphere until the opposite charges build up again.
Types of Lightning | Royal Meteorological Society
2017年12月18日 · A beautiful and deadly natural phenomenon, lightning is simply a sudden, electrostatic discharge - a ‘spark’ or ‘flash’ as charged atmospheric regions temporarily equalise themselves through this discharge. The polarity of lightning discharge can affect how it spreads and branches in space and time.
Lightning | Voltage, Causes, & Facts | Britannica
5 天之前 · About one-third of lightning flashes travel from the cloud to the ground; most of these originate in negatively charged regions of the cloud. Lightning occurs when regions of excess positive and negative charge develop within the cloud.
Understanding Lightning: Positive Flash - National Weather Service
While both positive and negative flashes are deadly, there are significant differences between the two in terms of their formation and behavior. Positive leaders typically originate from the positive charged area in the upper part of the thunderstorm cloud.
Understanding Lightning Science - National Weather Service
Thunder is the sound made by a flash of lightning. As lightning passes through the air it heats the air quickly. This causes the air to expand rapidly and creates the sound wave we hear as thunder.
What Causes Lightning and Thunder? - NOAA SciJinks
2024年12月5日 · This complete picture of lightning at any given time will improve "now-casting" of dangerous thunderstorms, tornadoes, hail, and flash floods. Wondering how we can detect lightning and stay safe in a lightning storm?
Lightning strike - Wikipedia
A single lightning event is a "flash", which is a complex, multistage process, some parts of which are not fully understood. Most CG flashes only "strike" one physical location, referred to as a "termination".