On average, 16 to 17 million storms occur on Earth each year, 44,000 per day. These are feared and desired in equal parts and bring with them rain, wind, lightning, thunder and lightning. A visual and auditory spectacle.
Lightning is one of nature’s most impressive phenomena, and we are fortunate to be able to observe it from any place and time of the year.
About 100 lightning strikes the Earth every second, but how are they formed?
The lightning discharge happens between the clouds and the surface of the earth, or between two clouds. The light that accompanies the lightning is known as lightning. The sound produced by the shock wave of the electrical discharge is known as thunder. The first indispensable factor for lightning to occur is to have a storm cloud, known as a cumulonimbus.
Lightning is produced by the interaction between positive and negative particles, but how does a storm cell become electrified?
Above 5 km, hail particles acquire a positive charge when they collide with ice crystals, which have a negative charge. Below 5000 meters, the opposite occurs.
Ice crystals lighter than the hail are pushed towards the top of the cumulonimbus. These crystals form a positively charged zone between 8 and 10 km altitude, while at 5 km the negative charge accumulates. Thus, there is a positive pole in the upper zone and a negative pole in the lower zone.
As a result of this, an electrical potential difference is generated both inside the cloud and outside, since the earth is positively charged, and the electrical discharge is produced: the lightning. This lightning is called negative lightning, but there is also a type of lightning that carries a positive charge between the cloud and the earth, although they are only 10% of the total.
The energy released by lightning is not much, but since it is produced in milliseconds, its power is quite remarkable.
