Thunderstorms and Lightning

Lighting is the atmospheric discharge of electricity. This electricity is the result of static charges that build up after being generated for reasons that are not clearly understood. Note that any simple action resulting in friction, like pulling plastic wrap off a roll or shuffling across a rug on a dry day, will generate static charges. Moving air can separate charges, and ice is thought to be involved, but the mechanism is not completely explained by science.

When charges are separated, an electrical force appears between them. This force is voltage, the electromotive force. As more charges separate, voltage builds, and at some point, this voltage will be so great that it will ionize air between the charges. Current will flow along this ionized path, and this is lightning. Moving electrons carry the current. The ionized air is superheated, and it emits an intense light. The light we see is the lightning, and the superheating of the air creates a shock wave we perceive as thunder. The bolt can pass from ground to cloud, from cloud to ground, or from cloud to cloud. Links can be found below for more information.

Lightning is a natural phenomenon of electrostatic discharge breakdown that occurs when static electricity builds up between thunderclouds or between the cloud and the earth.

If the difference in electrical potential between two points is more than 100 million volts,

it produces a plasma during discharge, causing an explosive expansion of air by heat. By dissipating, this plasma creates a flash of light and thunder.

When a bolt of lightning strikes loose sand, the electric charge vaporizes a thin hole and melts the zone around it, creating an instant froth of natural glass. These tubes-fulgurites-can be a meter long or more, but they're fragile, and what you see in rock shops is usually a piece like this, 4 centimeters long and as light as pumice. Sometimes a fulgurite forms in solid rock. This fulgurite specimen came from the Sahara Desert in Morocco.

Fulgurite is scientific Latin for "lightning stone."

St. Elmo's Fire is a weather phenomenon involving a gap in electrical charge. It's like lightening, but not quite. And while it has been mistaken for ball lightening, it's not that, either -- and it's definitely not fire.

No, hailstones are not round. They come in different shapes and sizes becasue they are so rough.

Clouds form when water vapor in the air condenses into tiny water droplets or ice crystals around microscopic particles, such as dust or ash. The type of cloud that forms depends on various factors like temperature, humidity, and air pressure. Different cloud types include cumulus, stratus, cirrus, and nimbus clouds, each with distinct characteristics and formations.

The answer is essentially in the question.

Sound is the sensation caused by vibrations in the air.

The faster the vibrations, the higher the frequency.

So, when an engine is revved, the frequency of the vibrations it creates increases, and it gives higher frequency sounds, perceived as an increase in pitch.

Water vapor form snowflakes when the temperatures in the air are above freezing and the air should be unsaturated. The water vapor to create hailstones start inside a cumulonimbus cloud and super cooled liquid water are caught in a strong updraft. The cycle continues to increase the size of the hailstone, then eventually falls to the earth's surface.

Thunderstorms start usually along a frontal boundary usually assoicated with a cold front but sometimes can happen with the other types of fronts. Along a cold frontal boundary, warm moist air is lifted up and over the cold air mass sitting behind the front. The warm moist air being uplifted along the frontal boundary cools by expansion and the moisture is condensed into clouds. Now here is where the fun part begins, the warm moist air that was uplifted along the cold frontal boundary is uplifted by updraft winds that continue expansional cooling and condensation upwards vertically. Usually before you see the thunderstorm mature you will start to see fair weather cumulus clump together into whats called cumulus congestus. Cumulus congestus are mash potato shaped heaps of cumulus clouds that are coming together and are getting shot upwards in vertical motion by updraft winds. When a thunderstorm reaches maturity, it reaches the upper troposphere and the top of the thunderstorm cloud is ripped apart by the upper level jetstream into anvil cirrus clouds which are then carried downstream of the storm by the upper level jetstream. Before a thunderstorm matures, downdraft winds form in the front of the storm carrying precipitation and sometimes downbursts out of the storm. Once a thunderstorm runs out of moisture and energy, it starts to dissipate and weaken and eventually dies out all together.

A lightning bolt only is 1/2 an inch wide, but looks tremendously larger due to luminosity.

Moisture is rare in the stratosphere, so few clouds reach this location. Nacreous and non-nacreous clouds are the only category of clouds found in the stratosphere, and the non-nacreous ones contain nitric acid.

yes... obviously! what difference does it make at night? also - it has hailed on my house at night. and it was really loud. :-( hope this helped! Yes, it can hail at night. It is actually more common for it to hail in the late afternoon to evening and also at night since a lot of the severe thunderstorms that produce hail take place during that time of day when there is a lot of cooling happening after the day's heating.

The rhyme is a rule of thumb for weather forecasting , dating back over 2,000 years, based on the reddish glow of the morning or evening sky, caused by haze or clouds related to storms in the region. Due to the rotation of the Earth, from west to east, storm systems tend to travel eastward across a local region of the globe. A reddish sunrise, caused by particles suspended in the air, often foreshadows an approaching storm, which will be arriving from the west, within the day

Because Of the wheather. Toronto has lots Of heat and moisture which creates storms, which is something vancouver doesnt have as Often beacuse of the cooler air

1. Atmosphere: Lightning can produce nitrogen oxides, which can lead to the formation of ozone and affect air quality.
2. Hydrosphere: Lightning can cause wildfires, which can impact water quality by releasing pollutants into water bodies.
3. Lithosphere: Lightning strikes can affect soil composition and structure, leading to changes in nutrient availability.
4. Biosphere: Lightning can start fires that destroy habitats and threaten the survival of plant and animal species, but it can also contribute to nutrient cycling by fixing atmospheric nitrogen.

Another name for a low pressure area is a cyclone. Cyclones are characterized by atmospheric pressure that is lower than the surrounding region, allowing air to rise and potentially leading to the formation of weather systems such as storms.

earth harmony living" or "net zero living

Yes thunder can be dangerous, but it depends how close you are to it.

Thunder can damage your ears depending on how loud/close you are to it.

Be careful to distinguish thunder from lightning, which are related but different. Lightening is the actual electrical discharge, and is dangerous because you can be electrocuted. Thunder is just the sound from to lightning, and so it could only hurt your ears if it is very loud (which is pretty unlikely). This is most likely to occur from a positive C-G strike since it contains up to 300 000 amperes which in return creates the loudest of thunder. Also thunder from these strikes have popped nails from wood and even crack windows.

In a car, the metal body will protect you sending the lightning around the body of the car.Never touch the body of the car if this is acuring.Keep your hands together in your lap and feet firmly on the ground.You might feel a tingle in your feet but other than that you are safe.
Indoors or in a car. just not outside, be under something

Because the water vapour doesn't settle in a straight line. It moves, but it is sort of like us. There re no two same people on the planet. Twins may look the same, but in actual fact, there just as different as you and I. It is the same with clouds.

Basically,clouds are Mormon.

There are many types of clouds. The cirrocumulus, the cirrus cloud, the cirrostratus, the altostratus, the altocumulus, the cumulus, the cumulus humilis, the stratocumulus, the nimbostratus, the stratus, and the cumulonimbus

When you hear a weather report that forecasts scattered showers, you might wonder what you can expect. Usually it means that some parts of your area will have rain from time to time during the day or night. Some of the rain might fall where you are, and some of it will fall somewhere else. It will be scattered through the reporting area.

Lighting is most frequent in thuderstorms, so the largest percentage occur in tropical climates. There are nearly as many in the ocean as on land, and they are particularly numerous during tropical storms.

The sun evaporates water from the Earth and it turns into water vapour. Water vapour rises up into the sky and forms clouds. When the clouds get heavy (means a lot of evaporation), water falls form the sky as rain. The water comes from the clouds. (clouds are not gases. They are solids)

Rusting is a chemical reaction between iron and oxygen. Specifically, it is the oxidation of iron. Almost chemical reactions occur at a faster rate at higher temperatures because particles have more kinetic energy. Based on the principle that particles must collide to react -----> This increase in kinetic energy means that when particles collide they 1) collide with more energy and 2) have more frequent collisions therefore the rate of reaction increases. The exceptions are exothermic reactions, which tend to slow down when more heat is added.

More properly Lightning arrestor, not resistor, which would be a circuit component. this is a safety device required by electrical codes(which amount to laws) to be used on all radio transmitter stations but particularly ham stations. the device protects the equipment from lightning strikes and damage. This is an external component that only works when needed like a safety valve on a boiler to relieve pressure.