Lightning Strikes : More Common And Deadlier
Climate change is making lightning strikes around the world more common and deadlier.
- Strikes are possible because electrical charges can build up in a cloud beyond the ability of air to keep resisting their movement.
- It is an electrical discharge between charged particles in a cloud and the ground.
- It can occur between opposite charges within the thunderstorm cloud (intra-cloud lightning) or between opposite charges in the cloud and on the ground (cloud-to-ground lightning).
- It is one of the oldest observed natural phenomena on Earth. It can be seen in volcanic eruptions, extremely intense forest fires, surface nuclear detonations, heavy snowstorms, large hurricanes, and obviously, thunderstorms.
- While a lightning strike occurs between a cloud and an object on or near the ground, it takes the path of least resistance, which means it moves towards the closest object with the highest electric potential.
