What is cloud lightning strike?
CLOUD TO CLOUD LIGHTNING. Cloud to cloud lightning happens when a negatively charged cloud finds a positively charged cloud and opposites attract. These do not strike the ground obviously. They just travel from cloud to cloud.
What is happening when lightning occurs within a cloud?
Lightning is an electrical discharge caused by imbalances between storm clouds and the ground, or within the clouds themselves. Most lightning occurs within the clouds. This heat causes surrounding air to rapidly expand and vibrate, which creates the pealing thunder we hear a short time after seeing a lightning flash.
How is lightning formed in clouds?
This warm air rises. As the air rises, water vapour cools and forms a cloud. Heavier, negatively charged particles sink to the bottom of the cloud. When the positive and negative charges grow large enough, a giant spark – lightning – occurs between the two charges within the cloud.
What are the different types of lightning called?
There are three primary types of lightning which include: cloud-to-ground (the most commonly known type), cloud-to-air, and cloud-to-cloud. With cloud-to-ground lightning, the rapid discharge of lightning is a channel of negative charge that is attracted to the positively charged ground.
Can lightning strike without clouds?
Dry lightning is lightning that occurs without rain nearby. These lightning flashes have been documented to travel several miles away from the thunderstorm cloud. They can be especially dangerous because they appear to come from clear blue sky.
What is a flash of lightning called?
A flash of light produced by short-duration, high-voltage discharge of electricity within a cloud, between clouds, or between a cloud and the earth. coruscation. fulguration. lightning. forked lightning.
When does lightning strike within one cloud it is called?
Intracloud lightning is when the lightning strikes are within one cloud. This is actually the most common type of lightning in the world. The lightning is within one single storm cloud.
What kind of lightning is called sheet lightning?
Intra-cloud lightning is sometimes called sheet lightning because it lights up the sky with a ‘sheet’ of light. Cloud to Cloud: Lightning that occurs between two or more separate clouds. Cloud to Ground: Lightning that occurs between the cloud and the ground.
What kind of lightning does not strike the ground?
Most of these remain within the cloud and are called intra-cloud (IC) lightning flashes. Cloud flashes sometimes have visible channels that extend out into the air around the storm (cloud-to-air or CA), but do not strike the ground.
What kind of lightning has a negative charge?
This type of lightning is called negative lightning because negative charges are moving from the cloud to the ground. Sometimes, lightning will come from the upper parts or near the top of the storm, where the positively charged particles are located.
