Lightning and Thunderstorm

Every small kid likes the rain. They love to dance in the rain and sail their paper boat, and the most enjoyable part for them is to eat fritters in the rain. But, have you ever heard the booming sound while raining: it's Thunder. It sounds so scary, isn't it? But don't worry that scary sound doesn't hurt anyone, but the same can't be said for lightning because it can kill a person. 

So now in this article we will learn about thunder and will understand about lightning, will discuss many thunderstorm facts and what are the causes of thunder and lightning. So now let's get started and learn about the thunder and the lighting. 

Learning About Lightning And Thunder 

What is the Lightning?

During rain have you seen the huge and bright strike of light if yes then do you know what's that called? It's lightning. Lightning is a very powerful burst of electricity which happens very quickly. It's a natural electrical discharge which is of very high voltage and it happens for a very short period. Its temperature is approximately 54,000° Fahrenheit. 

Lightning can happen between the clouds or inside the clouds and even from clouds to the earth. Lightning makes the air very hot and the air which suddenly gets heated expands very quickly. Pulmonology is the study of lightning. And the fear of lightning is seen in many people and that is called astraphobia. 

What is Thunder?

It's caused by lightning. It's the loud and horrible sound that we hear after we see the bright flash of light.  Thunder sound is produced by lightning. Let's see how it happens.  So, When the lightning bolt travels from the clouds to the ground it opens up a little hole in the air which is called a channel. And Once the light is gone then the air collapses back which creates a very horrible sound wave that we hear as thunder.

What Comes First? Thunder or Lightning?

• Lightning and thunder occur at the same time lightning strokes displace a small volume of the air and when the stroke is completed the air comes back into space. That's where the crack of thunder occurred. 

• So if they both happen at the same time then why it happens that we can always hear the sound of thunder after we have seen the stroke of light that's because

• The speed of light is 299792458 m/s

• And the speed of sound is 343 m/s. So we can see that light travels faster than sound. That's Why we always see the lightning first and after a few seconds, we hear the thunder. 

• Just remember one thing and that's if the air is warmer then faster the sound of thunder will travel and if the air is cool then slower the sound of thunder will travel. 

Lightning 

Science Behind the Weather

We always stay curious to know the science behind the weather, we always want to know why thunder and lightning happen and what the causes of lightning and thunder are, so now let's clear it up too. 

So why do lightning and thunder happen? And it happens because the very small bits of ice particles and the water droplets which are inside the clouds, bump into each other which creates a positive electric charge. And as the opposite attracts each other that's why those positive charges in the thunder get attracted by the negative charges which are below the clouds and then the sparkle big flash of lightning generates very fastly and equalises the negative-positive charge which is in the atmosphere until the opposite charges are set up again.  So in this way lightning and thunder happen. 

Facts About Lightning and Thunder

Facts About Thunder And Lightning

• Do you know every year, on average 2,40,000 people are injured by a lightning strike every year.

• The average thickness of the bolt is around 1-2 inches.

• The electricity in the lightning: never travels from the cloud to the ground it travels from the ground to up.

• The temperature of the lightning is more than 5 times the temperature of the sun.

• The place where the most lightning strikes happen is Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. It's the place on earth which receives the most lightning strikes, on average 40,000 lightning strikes in one night.

Summary

So in this article, we learned about lightning and thunder. We learnt about what lightning is, what thunder is, what causes lightning and thunder i.e what’s the science behind that weather, we discussed some interesting fun facts about lightning about thunder, and had learned about the safety tips which we take when it’s lightning and thunder because it’s very dangerous and can give some serious harm that’s why it’s important to stay safe from lightning and thunder. 

So after reading this we have a little bit of understanding of lightning also. We learned how dangerous it is and how we can protect ourselves from it. With this we have come to an end of our article and we hope you enjoyed reading the same. In case of any other doubts, feel free to ask in the comments.