Most of us might have seen the movie THOR, I bet you liked it when he swings that hammer of his to produce this amazing light and the force that goes with it. Me, I really did enjoy the movie, mostly the part when men tried to pull his hammer from the ground by different means but couldn't, a hammer he swings with ease, they call him the god of thunder, did you know he came from a city called Asgard...
Wait a minute, seems like I just started narrating a movie (brain reset, back to business)
Now Back to it, we are going to have a study on lightning today, am so much enjoying writing this article, probably because I just finished my semester exams (exams can be quite tasking, the pile of books to read). Well am back at what I do and hitting you guys today is that natural spark of lightning, don't fret the article isn't dangerous like the lightning strike, stick with me it's just a spark of knowledge.
Lightning And It's Formation
Lightning is said to be a sudden discharge of charges between the charged regions of a cloud, another cloud or the ground. The transfer of charges bring about the flashes seen as lightning.
Do lightning just occur, of course there is an explanation to the formation of lighting and in this section we will get to understand the formation of this white blue light.
Just like some Natural phenomenon, lightning has some conditions necessary for its occurrence, and you might just guess as well the it's more about the charges.
For lightning to occur both in the atmosphere or down to the ground one thing is common and that is the formation and the separation of positive and negative charges creating a very intensive electric field which is very important in the discharge of this natural spark.
Electric field formation in the atmosphere occurs mainly by the ionisation of molecules of air by cosmic rays, these are particles of high energy which have their origination to be outside the solar system and as the tend to have collisions with molecules of air, a shower of some lighter particles are formed and some of these particles are composed of charges.
But how Dose these charges lead to the formation of this spark, this spark is produced with regards to separation of charges in the atmosphere, what I mean is, a relationship between positive and negative charge clusters, either between clouds of between the cloud and the ground, to better explain the formation of lightning, i shall use the cloud to ground form of lightning to throw light to it.
Charges which has been formed by ionization due to cosmic rays are further separated up and down a cloud due to the rapid movement of ice crystals and water droplets,hence positive charges tend to accumulate at the top of the cloud while negative at the bottom part.
As the build up of negative charge at the bottom of the thundercloud continues, this cause a region of opposite charge (positive) to develop at the ground level just below it, with this regard, a potential difference is formed between this gap and on accumulation unto a certain high magnitude, baam!!, the air separating the ground and the cloud develop conductivity.
This is first explained by the formation of a stepped leader (termed steeped due to fact that it travels in sections). A steeped leader is a channel unseen to the naked eyes through which electrons follow down to the ground. As this charge gets close to the ground level, the accumulated positive charge streamer moves upward to connect with the incoming negative charge.
At first unseen through the formed path, but once there is flow of negative charges from the cloud to the ground or positive from the ground to the cloud, a lightning is formed from the visible movement of these charges. First a discharge is seen, which follows the formation of another leader and once again another stroke is seen and this happens sometimes about 3-4 succession at quick time interval, possibly, 200 milliseconds.
Types Of Lightning
Though there exist different kinds of lightning based on their orientation, three primary kinds of lightning exist in nature, and in this section, I will throw a ray of light to them, let's begin with the first which is the cloud to ground lightning.
Cloud to ground lightning
Just like the name of this lightning implies, it is a lightning which the connection of charges are between the cloud and the ground. This is due to the presence of steeped leader from the cloud downwards and the streamer which meets it from the ground.
Pixabay: A cloud to ground lightning occurrence in New York
In nature, this kind of lightning is the least common but amongst other types, it's the most understood and the best explained formation of lightning since it is easy to scientifically study them as it stops on reaching the earth, and hence measurement can be done.
Of all the types of lightning, the cloud to ground lightning is seen to have great threat to the life of humans, animals and properties, this is due to the fact that the lightning strick hits the earth on impact.
This type of lightning can either be negative or positive based on the direction of the electric current, a negative cloud to ground lightning implies that there is travel of negative charges to the earth hence, there is flow of electrons from the cloud to the ground.
A positive lightning cloud to ground lightning sees positive charges traveling from the cloud to the ground and with electrons moving from the ground to the cloud, this type of lightning is less common about 5% of all cloud to ground lightning.
Intracloud Lightning
Intracloud lightning is one of the form of lightning not having its direction towards the ground. This type of lightning occurs between two clouds
Three quarter of lightning occurrence on earth stay in the cloud where they are formed, they tend to find another part of the cloud which is of an opposite charge in the thunder cloud these typ which are sometimes referred to as sheet lightning due to the fact that they sometimes form a glowing light in the surface of the cloud where they are formed.
The Spider lightning, a type of intracloud lightning which occurs during creep of bolts at the underside of a cloud.
Cloud to Cloud Lightning
This is a type of lightning which occurs leaving the cloud wherein they are formed but still stay in the sky. It may be noticed to move from one cloud to another, just as its name implies or it may simply strike the air surrounding the area (termed cloud to air).
Its true that all type of lightning which stay at the sky have less or no effect on humans on earth but they may cause serious havoc up there in the sky with regards to flying machine such as the airplanes, the rocket and so on, hence it's important to take to effect the weather condition before sending any machine into the sky.
Other forms of lightning can be seen in the wiki reference below.
Effects Of Lightning
Just like the electric current we all know is unsafe, lightning too is quite unsafe and can cause destruction of various kinds in various manner.
Objects which are struck by this natural spark tend to experience a great magnitude of magnetic forces and heat. When it's bolt hit a tree, it current may vaporize the sap in the tree while travelling through it, hence causing a burst in the trunk of this tree.
Wikimedia: Tree struck by lightning byJauerback licenced underCC BY SA-4.0 and GNU
Though about 70% of humans struck by lightning survive the strike, it may cause injury to the internal organ of the body and damage in the nervous system.
Tall structures or buildings struck by lightning often are seen to be damaged as the current tries to find its way down to the ground hence protection systems for lightning are fixed to reduce the damage caused by an occurrence of lightning.
Though all the negative effects of lightning, an important advantage of this strike is its role in the nitrogen cycle, this lightning strick helps in oxidizing diatomic nitrogen present in air turning them into nitrates which aid in the growth of plants and some other organisms after being deposited by rain.
World Noted Occurrences And Outcome
This natural spark which we see from time to time have indeed caused some disastrous outbreak over the years, in this section of this article, I will list some of the major occurrence of lightning and what follows.
And Lighting Had An Interaction With Gunpowder (Boom!!!)
In the year 1769 a major disaster out broke took place when lightning choose no other place to strike but the Church of Nazaire in Italy, unfortunately, this church was a storage for gunpowder which was kept for safekeeping, I guess you are beginning to get a picture.
207,000 pounds of gunpowder was actually stored in this church and the current found its way through the vault and boom!!! goes the story.
One-sixth of the entire city was destroyed as a result of this and recorded death for this incident was 3,000 of its residents. The question on how to protect arsenals from the strike of lightning is still being asked.
The Strike In The Sky
December 8, 1963, saw a death toll of 81 passengers on board the Pan American Flight 214 which was en route to Philadelphia from Puerto Rico. The strike was said to have struck it's left wing to near the reserve fuel tank.
Reports had it that the Flight 214 was awaiting approval to land at the International Airport of Philadelphia before the occurrence, this strike lost its left wing and there followed a huge crash few seconds later. On examination of the after math, metal surface were found to be melted and traces of high heat were found.
Just like there is no mixture between fuel and lighting, airplane fuel systems are vulnerable to lightning strikes and can cause a crash, this led to the addition of a lightning discharge wick on commercial planes.
The New York City Blackout
In the summer of 1977 lightning caused a Chaos in New York City when it struck the Edison electrical transmission. This strike caused the short circuit of some major lines.
Investigations led to the discovery of the cause of blackout to be a series of lightning bolt hitting the 345,000 volt lines and this blackout lasted for about 25 hours, this saw some people trapped in elevators and subways, rioting through the city and violent looting by individuals.
And It Struck A Space Rocket.
A military Rocket, the Atlas-Centaur 67 worth about $78 million on board communication equipments worth $83 million was hit just 51 second after lift. To prevent further damages by going out of course and damaging parts of Florida, the rocket had to be destroyed in air and this wreckage had its great fall into the Atlantic.
A video tape by NASA showed the bolt as it hit the Rocket and experts on lightning had the theory that a rocket with its speed through a storm cloud will draw charges from the cloud. NASA blamed this incidence on the Air Force for inaccurate weather report trying to defend their decision of launching a rocket through a cloudy sky.
Another Rocket struck by lightning was the Apollo 12 on 14th November, 1969 which saw the bolt hitting it after 30 seconds of lift, though this only caused a temporal system failure but control was regained over the aircraft saving a disaster.
The Yellowstone Fires—Summer of 1988
A period of fire in the history of Yellowstone was caused by combination of high winds, drought and series of lightning strike. 36% of the Yellowstone Park was affected by this period, mammals perished.
One was termed the "Black Saturday". This incident was the most active fire day of 1988.
Humans: Cure or Cause?
When asked if you would like a lightning strike for a superpower, it might surprise you that many would say a yes to that, because as wired as it may sound, some survivors of lightning strike have shown some physical changes, but mind you, it's not only for the best.
Actually, 70% of those hit by lightning survive the bolt, most of who are golfers due to their constant stay in open places leaving them vulnerable to a lightning strike. Survivors normally claim to have had some physical change in their body after the strike some developed stutters, blur vision, depression, impotence, memory loss or some other weird feature. Some wired survival stories below :
Roy Sullivan, he was a former Park Ranger and you won't believe the fact that he holds the Guinness record of being struck by lightning seven times and surviving all incident. They say lightning never strick a place twice but Roy Sullivan actually tried breaking that. So sad that he committed suicide at the age of 71.
The story of Tony Cicori was of a man initially a surgeon who after being struck by a lightning bolt out of the blue developed obsession for classical piano.
Heard that of Harold Deal?, after surviving a lightning strike in 1969,Harold instantly became cold blooded, cold blooded I mean he became immune to cold, always wearing shorts in heavy snowstorm.
As of Edwin Robinson, he actually claimed that a bolt of lightning brought back his sight, like he was blind and now can see deal. This was the sight which he lost 10 years earlier in a car accident, weird right?.
Actually with all this weird stuff above, I for a second wished to be struck by one, like I just become superman, if you were to be struck by one, what will you wish for?.
Staying Safe From Lightning Strike.
Have not been struck by lightning though but from my research on this article, I must say it's not something nice to experience, I just wonder how the man who got struck seven times did it maybe he should be the one writing this part of this article, anyway, you are stuck with me and my research so let's get to Surviving lightning :)
pixabay: I'd rather be indoors when it comes
What better way to survive lightning than by staying away from it, and that's just about staying indoor(no wonder more number of lightning death are recorded for golfers). Also there something called the 30/30 rule, I think you should get abreast with it, and it goes
30/30 Rule: If, after seeing lightning, you can’t count to 30 before hearing a thunder, get inside a building or car. Don’t go outside until 30 minutes after the last clap of thunder.
You see 30/30 :)
What if you are caught during a storm, I will advice a shelter under small trees, but mind you, don't stay too close, this spark can actually burst trunks, also avoid tall objects as it often tend to fall in love with the tallest man in the area (and hey, don't be the tallest guy standing today)
In an open area and you see a valley or ravine close-by, get to the area, on doing so avoid any water body around since water is actually a good conductor.
And how do you know if you are about to get struck?
Not always but lightning strike give the signs of your hair standing on its end, hearing a buzzing or cracking sound, skin tingles, you caught a glimpse of a blue white glow being emitted by a metal, or most importantly an unsafe feeling .
It's advised when you get those, you should crouch down low with your hands covering your ears, heels touching feet and staying away from any metal object.
Bringing It All Together
As much as I would like a super power after being struck by lightning just like we watch in movies, I think I will stay clear. Electric charges of any sort is not friendly to the human body, so, safety first.
Am yet to see a cloud to ground lightning, not that I would like to see one, you know what I mean :), but it's so amazing such beautiful but dangerous lights which is just nature speaking, some will say it's the god of thunder showing his presence and I will say, cool power Thor!!!
Back on staying safe, lightning protection equipments such as lightning rods in houses, lightning detectors (the Thor guard) are important to use where necessary, also put to practice safety precautions, you shouldn't get struck by lightning after this.
Until next time, stay cool ✌