Thunder and lightening and what they are caused by!
What causes lightning?
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 - zap - lightning strikes!
What
causes thunder?
Thunder is caused by
lightning. When a lightning bolt travels from the cloud to the ground it
actually opens up a little hole in the air, called a channel. Once then light
is gone the air collapses back in and creates a sound wave that we hear as
thunder. The reason we see lightning before we hear thunder is because light
travels faster than sound!
Here is a link to a website that will show you where lightening is currently striking in the United States.
http://thunderstorm.vaisala.com/explorer.html
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