The average American has about a 1 in 5,000 chance of being struck by lightning during a lifetime. Strikes can cause cardiac arrest and severe burns, but 9 of every 10 people survive. Hundreds more survive strikes but suffer from a variety of lasting symptoms, including memory loss, dizziness, weakness, numbness, and other life-altering ailments. About 2,000 people are killed worldwide by lightning each year. Lightning is not only spectacular, it’s dangerous. Positive lightning can stretch across the sky and strike "out of the blue" more than 10 miles from the storm cloud where it was born. These strikes reverse the charge flow of typical lightning bolts and are far stronger and more destructive.
Ball lightning, a small, charged sphere that floats, glows, and bounces along oblivious to the laws of gravity or physics, still puzzles scientists.Ībout one to 20 cloud-to-ground lightning bolts is "positive lightning," a type that originates in the positively charged tops of stormclouds. Other rare forms can be sparked by extreme forest fires, volcanic eruptions, and snowstorms. Some types of lightning, including the most common types, never leave the clouds but travel between differently charged areas within or between clouds. When the two connect, an electrical current flows as negative charges fly down the channel towards earth and a visible flash of lightning streaks upward at some 200,000,000 mph (300,000,000 kph), transferring electricity as lightning in the process. When the lowermost step comes within 150 feet (46 meters) of a positively charged object, it is met by a climbing surge of positive electricity, called a streamer, which can rise up through a building, a tree, or even a person. Each of these segments is about 150 feet (46 meters) long.
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Each bolt can contain up to one billion volts of electricity.Ī typical cloud-to-ground lightning bolt begins when a step-like series of negative charges, called a stepped leader, races downward from the bottom of a storm cloud toward the Earth along a channel at about 200,000 mph (300,000 kph). Types of LightningĬloud-to-ground lightning bolts are a common phenomenon-about 100 strike Earth’s surface every single second-yet their power is extraordinary. Lightning strikes during thunderstorms kill more Americans each year than either tornadoes or hurricanes.
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