How many joules does a lightning bolt have?

Answer 1

An average bolt of negative lightning carries a current of 40 kA (kiloampreas) although some bolts can be up to 120 kA, and transfers a charge of 5 coulumbs and 500 MJ (megajoules)or enough energy to power a 100 watt lightbulb for just under two months. The voltage depends on the length of the bolt: with the of air being 3 million volts per meter, this works out at about one billion volts for a 300m (1,000 feet) lightning bolt.

Answer 2

Voltage: A typical lightning bolt bridges a P D, (voltage) of several hundred million volts.

A bolt of lightning may transfer 1020 electrons in a fraction of a second, and develop a peak current of up to 1000 kilo amperes.

Current: measurements are generally the range 5,000 to 20,000 amps. Currents over 200,000 amps have been reported.

Hot v Cold Lightning: Usually the lightning current ceases in about a millisecond for any given stroke, However occasionally there is a continuing current of about 100 amps following one or more of the strokes. This this is called "hot lightning" and it is the cause of lightning fires, The temperatures of lightning are 8,300-33,000°C for both "cold" and "hot" lightning - it is the continuing current that starts fires.

Total power: A moderate thunderstorm generates several hundred megawatts of electrical power.

One strike has enough energy to light 150,000,000 light bulbs.

One storm can discharge enough energy to supply the entire U.S. with electricity for 20 minutes

A large Midwestern cumulonimbus can tower 20-25 km (Mount Everest is 8.8 km high.)

There are approximately 2,000 thunderstorms at any given moment worldwide.

Answer 3

On average, negative lightening is around 30 kA (kiloamperes) but it can go up to 120 or 150kA. Positive lightening is far more, on average 300kA and can go up to 1200kA. Not sure about that in J though

Answer 4

Type your answer here... anywhere from 20,000 to 200,000 amps can be found in a lightning bolt, It all depends on the size of the storm, the humidity of the air, the temperature, the charge in the ground and a number of other factors.

Answer 5

There are about 100 million to 1billion watts.

Answer 6

A typical lightning bolt can carry about 1 billion joules of energy. This is equivalent to the energy used by an average household in about a month.

Answer 7

The term is volts, it varies but is between 100 million up to 1 billion.

Answer 8

1.21 gigawatts

Answer 9

It can power 150,000,000 light bulbs.

Answer 10

300