Thread: lightning

i've been thinking a bit. thunderstorms usually happends when it rains,
and when you have positive/negative skies, and the opoosite ground.
what i'm wondering, is the water providing a path for the lightning to travel down?

Artificial lightning can be created in the laboratory,
no rain required.

Actually, rain is not required but does play a huge part. That's why there lightning is so rare in the snow, very little moisture. Without rain a much larger build up of energy would be needed and lightning would be MUCH rarer.

Originally Posted by dejawolf

i've been thinking a bit. thunderstorms usually happends when it rains,
and when you have positive/negative skies, and the opoosite ground.
what i'm wondering, is the water providing a path for the lightning to travel down?

No, not really - the atmospheric gasses do that job just fine without the rain.

But rain/humidity IS necessary for lightning. It's the tossing around of water droplets by the wind that creates the charges necessary to power lightning. (Yes, very short answer, I know - but it serves the purpose here.) :wink:

i think im right in saying most lightening strikes go upwards and dissipate into the atmosphere, a strike that does go down is met by an upward strike from the object it is just about to hit, and provides a path to earth

the reason why rain and lightning often go together is that the movement of ice particles in clouds build up the charge difference that eventually causes lightning
when the same ice particles fall down to earth they either melt and come down as rain or they don't you have hail

having said that, i once witnessed a massive thunder-and-lightning show without a single trace of rain - presumably the ice particles don't always drop out