Thunderstorms and Lightning

No, thunder is not an example of precipitation. Thunder is the sound produced by the rapid expansion of air heated by a lightning strike. Precipitation refers to water droplets or ice crystals that fall from clouds and reach the ground, such as rain, snow, sleet, or hail.

About 1% of thunderstorms produce tornadoes.

They are called tornadoes. Tornadoes are violent rotating columns of air that extend from a thunderstorm to the ground.

You hear thunder after seeing lightning because lightning produces intense heat that causes the air to rapidly expand and create a shock wave. This shock wave is what we hear as thunder. The distance between you and the lightning strike can affect the time gap between seeing the lightning and hearing the thunder.

Benjamin Franklin flew a kite in a thunderstorm to prove lightning was electricity. He also was the dicoverer of bifocals and the Franklin stove. He was one of the Founding Fathers of America.

Static electricity is first created in the clouds then with enough charge the electricity grounds itself to the earth and what you see is the flow of static electricity shifting from the clouds to the ground

Yes, lightning can strike a person through a window, especially if the window is open or if the person is in direct contact with metal framing the window. It is important to stay away from windows and avoid contact with metal objects during a lightning storm to reduce the risk of being struck.

When lightning appears as more than one line, it is called forked lightning. This occurs when the electrical discharge in the atmosphere branches out into multiple paths as it travels from the cloud to the ground. Forked lightning can create a striking visual display during a thunderstorm.

This rule is known as Bernoulli's principle. It states that as the speed of a fluid increases, the pressure within the fluid decreases, and vice versa. This principle is commonly used in fluid dynamics to explain phenomena such as lift on an airplane wing or the flow of water through a pipe.

It is not dangerous because sound travels at a slower speed than light. When you see the flash of lightning, the storm is typically far enough away that the lightning poses no immediate threat. If thunder is heard long after the flash, it indicates that the storm is moving away from your location.

A lighting rod is a metallic rod, which is put in place to provide a route for electric charge to travel to the ground. It is placed at the top of a high building, and connected to a wire which runs down the side of said building and connects to a ground rod, which is placed underground. The reason why these are put in place is to avoid tall buildings being struck by lightning, as this could cause high temperatures in the building or even start a fire.

Fluid accumulation and pressure can be remedied by addressing the underlying cause, such as heart failure or kidney dysfunction. Treatment may include medications to improve heart function, diuretics to reduce fluid retention, and lifestyle modifications such as reducing salt intake. In severe cases, procedures like drainage or surgery may be necessary.

Atherosclerotic blockages most often occur in the coronary arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle, leading to conditions such as heart attacks. They can also occur in the carotid arteries supplying blood to the brain, causing strokes, and in the peripheral arteries of the legs, leading to peripheral artery disease.

You want to provide the lightening a place to go other than through your house to find a ground. The "earthing" of the Arrester provides the pat of least resistance to ground which is where the lightening wants to go. If this connection to earth was not provided the lightening charge would wander through the house and potentially zap many appliances, TVs and other assorted things that are connected to ground in some way, including people or pets in the house. Think of your house as a maze of electrical connections to ground. The earth connection to the arrester provides a secret and direct tunnel through the maze of the lightening to follow.

The first stage is the cumulus cloud stage in which the fluffy cumulus cloud in an unstable (warm and moist near surface and very cold aloft) builds into a towing cumulus. All we have is an updraft! In the next stage, the mature stage rain begins to fall dragging down cool air and evaporating into the downdraft and cooling it. Then we have an updraft and a downdraft together. When the mature thunderstorm reaches way up in the atmospehere to the tropopause (boundary between the layer of the atmospehere where sensible weather occurs and the stratosphere) an anvil shape becomes evident. The final stage is the dissipating stage. The rain and rain cooled air become so dominant that the updraft dies and all that is left is the downdraft. The thunderstorm dies without an updraft.

The western edge of the US has fewer thunderstorms because the Pacific Ocean moderates the temperatures, resulting in less temperature contrast needed for thunderstorm formation. Additionally, the coastal mountains block moist air from moving further inland, limiting the fuel for thunderstorm development.

Spinning storm refers to a weather phenomenon where a storm system, such as a hurricane or tornado, exhibits rotational movement. This rotation is caused by factors like wind patterns and temperature gradients in the atmosphere, leading to the formation of a spinning vortex within the storm. These spinning storms can have destructive impacts due to their strong winds and potential for severe weather events.

Lightning is an electric current. Within a thundercloud way up in the sky, many small bits of ice (frozen raindrops) bump into each other as they move around in the air. All of those collisions create an electric charge. After a while, the whole cloud fills up with electrical charges. The positive charges or protons form at the top of the cloud and the negative charges or electrons form at the bottom of the cloud. Since opposites attract, that causes a positive charge to build up on the ground beneath the cloud. The grounds electrical charge concentrates around anything that sticks up, such as mountains, people, or single trees. The charge coming up from these points eventually connects with a charge reaching down from the clouds and hit the highest point. There isn't any lightning that originates from the ground.

A supercell is an extremely powerful self-sustaining thunderstorm characterized by intense rotating updrafts and downdrafts. These storms often have large hail, damaging winds, and tornadoes as a result of their strong rotation. Supercells can persist for several hours and are the most dangerous type of thunderstorm.

They ALWAYS happen together.

The lightning you see is an electrical discharge from ice crystals rubing together in clouds. This makes an almighty crack sound, and a bright light is observed. You hear the thunder after you see the lightning because sounds travels slower than light. But in fact, the sound and the light came to be at the same time.

The further away you are from the strom the larger the delay between seeing the light and hearing the sound is.

Yes, there is a delay between seeing lightning and hearing thunder because light moves faster than sound. The delay is due to the time it takes for the sound waves to travel from the lightning to your location. The further away the lightning is, the longer the delay between the lightning and the thunder.

Lightning can strike antennas because they are tall and metal structures that provide a direct path for electrical discharge to the ground. The metal in the antenna can conduct the electrical charge from the lightning strike, helping to protect the structure from damage.

Lightning is seen first because light travels much faster than sound.The light from the lightning reaches you almost instantly, while the sound of thunder travels much slower through the air, resulting in a delay between seeing the lightning and hearing the thunder.