I have been at the beach before during a thunderstorm, but the clouds were out over the water, so I thought I was safe. Does lightning go up or down? Myth: If you're caught outside during a thunderstorm, you should crouch down to reduce your risk of being struck. Light is so immensely fast that it goes beyond time. Luckily, I was inside the house. Does lightning strike from the sky down, or the ground up? Advertisement. Methuselah Foundation, the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, and the Lifeboat Foundation. First, the base of a cloud sends down a little electric discharge, called a stepped leader. Artificially initiated lightning is associated with things like very tall structures, rockets and towers. In Florida, there is a thunderstorm over the ocean about every day, and no one thinks much about it. passionate about stem cell research, regenerative medicine, and life extension therapies. GO: Home | Storm Expeditions | Photography | Extreme Weather Library | Stock Footage | Blog, Web Site Design and Internet Marketing by CIS Internet, For a negative cloud-to-ground discharge (the most common type of lightning striking the ground), the, Unlike cloud-to-ground lightning which starts inside the thunderstorm, a, Lightning Discharges to TV Towers, Skyscrapers and other Tall Structures. We only see the final product — a lightning bolt. Cloud-to-ground lightning: downward-moving. Let's take a look at the process through which lightning is known to be formed. A lightning bolt is created from the ground up and also down from the sky. It descends to the ground in steps, each about 50 yards (about 46 meters) in length. Lightning protectors were invented by Ben Franklin. This charge quickly moves from being distributed throughout the cloud to being concentrated at the point where the stepped leader first dropped from the cloud, into the ground or an elevated object. Sound is much slower, being more akin to feeling of the surrounding environment. The rising and lowering streamers are invisible to the human eye, and only become … Fact: Crouching doesn't make you any safer outdoors. This process can only be observed with the assistance of extremely quick-exposure cameras. And lightning is observed discharging upwards from the charged regions of the cloud in the troposphere. Did lightning strike the van at all, or did it strike the ground next to it? Contrary to the common expression, lightning can and often does strike the same place twice. This is somewhat of a trick question — technically lightning does both. This animation depicts the stepped leader descending Each step is less than a millionth of a second long. Lightning can travel both up and down. When you are that close to a storm, you don't stand by the window and watch to see whether the lightning goes up or down. Before them, houses would light on fire when struck by lightning, and the fire department was kept busy during thunderstorms. This helped to foster community, but was also highly dangerous. Atoms pass along electrical charge much more quickly than sound vibrations. In reality, our eyes cannot resolve any of the steps involved. Atoms pass along electrical charge much more quickly than sound vibrations. I was at a beach recently when my family and friends began to notice that our hair was sticking up in a thunderstorm which had suddenly arrived. This describes the common storm cloud, but positively charged storm clouds have been documented. AT RIGHT: Photo of ground-to-cloud (upward) lightning striking a television broadcast tower. Luckily, he survived, but he said it felt like someone whacked him in the head with a massive baseball bat. The stepped leader generally moves at about 75 miles per second (120 km/s) towards the ground. As it nears the ground, it induces enormous quantities of positive charge in the earth, especially at the tips of tall objects. How Should I Prepare for Lightning Storms. This animation depicts a type of upward-moving ground-to-cloud lightning striking a tall television tower. For a negative cloud-to-ground discharge (the most common type of lightning striking the ground), the stepped leader (the channel of ionized air) begins in the lower section of a thunderstorm cloud and propagates downward. I'm amazed that jumping in the van saved you. The answer is BOTH: There are distinct types of lightning strikes to earth that can travel in either direction - cloud-to-ground lightning and ground-to-cloud lightning. The answer is both. Michael is a longtime wiseGEEK contributor who specializes in topics relating to paleontology, Well both actually. The stepped leader generally moves at about 75 miles per second (120 km/s) towards the ground. Triggered lightning starts at the “ground,” which in this case may mean the top of a tower, and travels upwar… Wikibuy Review: A Free Tool That Saves You Time and Money, 15 Creative Ways to Save Money That Actually Work. The electronic function is almost light speed, but not quite. Negative charges from a thunderstorm slowly lower to the ground, while positive charges rise from the ground or an object toward the sky. This is an extremely slow-motion animation- the actual process takes only a small fraction of a second. This phenomenon occurs because of a difference in charge between a storm cloud and the ground. I actually hid in the closet with my terrified Doberman. AT RIGHT: Photo of cloud-to-ground lightning. I have heard stories of people getting struck inside their own homes, and I wanted to get in the spot that was totally windowless and doorless. We are still at a loss to understand how it works completely. 1: From high-speed video of a cloud-to-ground strike near Arian, Texas: The stepped leader descends, followed by the bright return stroke in the last 3 frames. There are two ways that flashes can strike ground: naturally downward (those that occur because of normal electrification in the environment), and artificially initiated or triggered upward. If you are too far to run to one of these options, you have no good alternative. This is usually the second stage before lightning hits. This process is extremely fast and impossible to see with the naked eye. Run to a substantial building or hard topped vehicle. It is sometimes best to jump onto the ground when this kind of thing occurs, but often the process is so quick that there is little or no time to react. 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