Facts About Electric Storms !!
Sing along with me, "You light up my life."
I love an electric storm. Of course, I love them when they are “over there” and not “over here.” I can remember standing in a plain in the Midwest of the United States enthralled by the show. A couple of years ago I took some friends to Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park . We sat eating a Japanese bento and watched an electric/lightening storm march across the Valley. Absolutely breathtaking.
So, what do we know about lightening and electric storms?
- They occur as a result of other storms - thunderstorms, volcanic eruptions, and dust storms.
- Bolts can travel at 60,000miles/sec (220.000km/h) - imagine the guy with the stop watch trying to measure that!
- Temperature of bolts can reach 30,000C (54,000F) - That’ll cook your egg in no time, eh?
- There’s an estimated 16 million electric storms every year.
- The chances of being struck by lightening in America - 1 in 576K. I live in San Jose, abt 1 million. There’s two people running around who have been hit by lightening. About one in 2.3 million die.
- Scientists don 'nt know how lightening forms.
- There are at least 14 kinds of lightening - Elves, Sprites, Blue Jets, to name a few.
- You can be confused by the supposed physics behind lightening here or here.
- Doc did NOT really harness a lightening bolt in Back to the Future.
Or you can just enjoy the show … and in my case, appreciate the lightening Maker.
