For what is basically a simple discharge of static electricity, the show can certainly be impressive. Photo provided by NOAA.
By Frank Ross
In the natural world around us, few events inspire the spontaneous reactions of awe and fear with the speed and universal impact as a single bolt of lightning. And well it should, for the numbers involved are as remarkable as the blinding flash of light and the window-rattling rumble of thunder that follows.
These dramatic flashes of light are basically the same type of event you may have experienced when you walk across a room in the winter and touch a door knob, receiving a shock of built-up static electricity. In much the same way, a charge of lightning builds up in the air, when moving particles become highly charged. Lightning is simply an atmospheric discharge of static electricity.
Simplifying the complex
That’s the simple explanation. The details of how this phenomenon occurs are another matter. There is currently no consensus among scientists on how lightening is initially formed and various theories populate the debate. Further, there are numerous different types of lightning, which only further muddies the waters of scientific understanding. Since the days of Benjamin Franklin’s foolhardy attempt to understand lightning, scientists have studied the root causes, producing theories that involve a wide range of suspected variables and contributing factors. These range from the impact of solar wind and the accumulation of charged solar particles to things that disturb or impact the atmosphere such as wind, humidity, friction, and atmospheric pressure. Ice that is contained inside a cloud is thought to be a key element in lightning development, and may cause a forcible separation of positive and negative charges within the cloud, thus assisting in the formation of lightning.
Fires and side effects
Scientific studies and educated speculation aside, when an atmospheric electrical discharge occurs, a leader of a bolt of lightning can travel at speeds up to 130,000 miles per hour. That is so fast it is almost impossible to comprehend. When you consider the amount of electricity and heat contained in a single strike, it is easy to understand how homes and businesses can be damaged severely, even burnt to the ground.
Every summer wildfires in California and numerous places in our country become headline news as they rage out of control, gobbling up thousands of acres of land, homes and business in their path. Many of them are started by lightning, and it is easy to see why. A single bolt of lightning can generate temperatures in the range of roughly three times the heat on the surface of the sun. With a direct strike to a home, you can imagine what this type of heat can do to dry lumber and roofing materials, but often the damage to a home is not a total loss of the structure, but an electrical gutting of your appliances and entertainment electronics equipment.
On average, a bolt of negative lightning will deliver an electric current of 30,000 amps. To put that in perspective, your home electrical panel might have a maximum capacity of 200-250 amps. And that’s an average bolt. Large bolts of lightning can deliver up to four times the jolt. Studies have revealed the voltage is directly proportional to the length of the bolt. For your stereo, telephone and other personal items, even a partial burst of that magnitude is fatal.
Lightning comes in both positive and negative polarity. The positive form of lightning is the rarest of these natural wonders. A positive strike is one that comes from what appears to be clear or only partially cloudy skies. It is this form of lightning that has become known as a “bolt from the blue” due to this curious strike that comes with no apparent warning.
Personal impact
In this realm of potential danger, seemingly ever present in our daily lives, it is hard for the average person to comprehend and respond to this threat that has the potential to take from us our possessions, and indeed our very lives. In self-defense, we build up these barriers that keep the wolf at bay. Our life experience tells us that it’s the other person that gets struck, the person in the news whose home or business is destroyed; not ours.
Reality is that when you hear the first clap of thunder roll in the distance, you are in the arena of the next strike. Whether it strikes close, or impacts your life, is basically a roll of the dice. The one question we all have to ponder is when will the law of averages catch up with us? When will the many thousands of lightning bolts we’ve watched be the one that has our name or address tingling within its current? With approximately 16 million lightning storms a year, and many times that in terms of individual bolts of electricity, it is really amazing that more people aren’t impacted on a daily basis. Unfortunately, the sheer volume of lightning that we experience on a yearly basis is probably the most detrimental aspect of this natural phenomenon.
Don’t get lulled into a false sense of security. Learn how to protect yourself, the lives of your family, and your personal property. This is a challenge we all face uniformly, but it is those who face it will a firm grasp of the nature of lightning and knowledge of the technology available for protection are the ones who breathe easier when summer storms roll across the land.
Come back often as I explore both the nature of the danger and the solutions to safety and peace of mind.
