Lightning
What is lightning?
Lightning bolts are sparks of electricity inside thunderclouds.
What causes lightning?

Wind splits water drops in the sky. This creates electricity. The electricity builds up and up and up and causes lightning bolts.

What types of lightning are there?

There are 4 types of lightning: heat, sheet, forked and ball.

Heat

 

Lightning from storms that are very far away.

Sheet

 

Lightning that covers a wide area.

Forked

 

Bolts that occur between clouds and the earth.

Ball

 

It is a round shape that glows.

 
Cool Facts:

Lightning strikes the earth about 100 times per second.

About 100 Americans are killed each year by lightning.

Lightning bolts generate about 100 million volts of electricity.
 
To cite this page as a resource write:
Lightning, www.slpschools.org, viewed on .
 
Bibliography:

Weather Gone Wild, http://tqjunior.thinkquest.org/5818/, downloaded 2/26/2002.

Lightning, http://www.uweb.ucsb.edu/~jboone/ Lightning2.htm, downloaded 2/27/2002.

 
Weather Research
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Revised: 12-11-06
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