LIGHTNING:
Lightning is one of the first signs of a monsoon storm.
It's incredibly hot. In fact, it's five times hotter than the surface of the sun, at an astounding 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Lightning is simply electricity. It forms in the up and down air currents inside cumulonimbus clouds when water droplets, hail, and ice crystals collide.
The positive and negative electrical charges in the cloud separate from one another. The negative charge drops to the bottom while the positive charge stays in the middle and upper parts of the cloud.
Lightning is the result of the build-up and discharge of electrical energy between the positive and negatively charged areas. In other words, opposites attract.
Only 20% of all lighting strikes actually make it down to the ground. Strikes more often occur within a single cloud or from one cloud to another.
Lightning is very powerful and will seek the path of least resistance, striking whatever is closest to it.
It’s common to think lightning will strike a metal object before it hits anything else, but that’s not true.
It just so happens that most of our tallest objects are metal, like telephone poles, towers on top of buildings, and transformers. Lightning will not specifically seek out metal objects. Metal just serves as a good conductor.
THUNDER:
If you look up in the afternoon during the monsoon, you can typically see dark puffy clouds building to the north and east.
They are cumulonimbus clouds, also known as “thunderheads.” These towering clouds can reach heights near 50,000 feet, covering up to 200 square miles.
Inside, they are full of moisture and electricity bringing lots of thunder and lightning.
We don’t always see the lightning, but we know it’s there when we hear thunder.
Thunder happens when the air surrounding the lightning strike heats up so fast that it causes the air to expand explosively, creating a shockwave that becomes a booming sound wave.
The distance you are from the lightning strike will affect the sound you hear when it strikes.
The closer you are, the more lightning will sound like a sharp crack. The farther away you are, the more it will sound like a low rumble. This is because the sound waves reflect and echo off of hillsides, buildings and trees.
Depending on the wind direction and temperature, you may hear thunder from storms up to 25 miles away.
The sooner you hear the clap of thunder, the closer you are to the storm.
The best way to figure out how far from the lightning you are is to use the five-second rule. For every five seconds that go by between seeing the flash of lightning and hearing the clap of thunder, you are approximately one mile away from the storm.
If the lightning is close enough, you will see it and hear the crack of thunder at approximately the same time.
If the storm is farther away, there will be a longer delay between seeing the lightning and hearing the thunder. That's because the speed of light is much faster than the speed of sound.
Remember, if you hear thunder you are close enough to be hit by lightning. So, "When thunder roars, go indoors."
