Lightning, an electrical discharge, which is released from mature clouds, is an exciting and even beautiful natural phenomenon with many different forms, shapes and colors. Every minute of every day 1,800 thunderstorms are taking place somewhere on the earth, releasing around 100 lightning bolts apiece. During these storms, it is likely that 1 person out of every 700,000 will be struck by lightning.

Though the amount of people struck by lightning might appear very minor, lightning is one of the leading natural disaster caused deaths in the United States. In an average year 73 people are killed in the United States due to lightning strikes and 300 people are injured. The survivors of lightning strikes often suffer from long term memory loss, attention deficits, sleep disorders, numbness, dizziness, stiffness in joints, fatigue, muscle spasms, irritability, and depression.

A single lightning bolt is very powerful, releasing enough energy to light a 100-watt light bulb for more than three months. This electrical surge is created by a buildup and discharge of positively charged and negatively charged electrical energy. Air rising and descending from the thunderstorm and water and ice particles separate the positively charged areas and the negatively charged areas. The lightning strike begins as an invisible channel of electrically charged air trying to get to the ground. Then a surge of electricity from the ground moves upwards, creating a lightning strike.
Lightning comes in many forms such as:

Forked Lightning
Streak Lightning
Sheet Lightning
Heat Lightning
Ball Lightning
Saint Elmo’s Fire
High-altitude Lightning.

Click here to learn about the different forms of lightning

It is important to know how to protect from lightning during a thunderstorm. Click here to learn how to keep safe here.

We normally hear a loud crack of thunder after we see a flash of lightning. Many people don’t know how we hear thunder, but it is actually very simple. When lightning strikes the air around it quickly heats to 43,000 degrees, causing the air around it to expand. Then it quickly cools causing the air to contract quickly. The rapid expansion and contraction causes air molecules to move back and fourth, creating the noise that we recognize as thunder. To find out how many miles away a thunderstorm is count the number of seconds between a flash of lightning and a crack of thunder. Then divide that number by five. The number you get is the distance the storm is from your location
Although it may seem that a storm is too far away for lightning to affect you, you should wait thirty minutes before going back outside again.