Tim Worstall

Weird Lightning

I know this area, Colerne, well above the surrounding countryside and exposed, so the lightning itself doesn’t surprise me.

A schoolgirl was lucky to survive when a bolt of lightning tore through the roof of her home and struck her metal bed.

Karla
Pope, 16, was trying to sleep in her first-floor bedroom when the
billion-volt bolt hit the television aerial on the roof. The current
went down through the roof and blew a 2ft hole in her bedroom ceiling,
before striking her metal-framed bed.

But, but, I was under the impression that lightning actually travelled from the ground upwards? Or is that me having misunderstood basic science, yet again?

In

8 responses

  1. Mr Eugenides Avatar
    Mr Eugenides

    That is my understanding, also. Ground to cloud, rather than the other way round as is usually thought.
    Which raises the uncomfortable prospect of a journalist getting something wrong… shurely not?

    Reply
  2. Tristan Avatar
    Tristan

    I would say it doesn’t make much difference.
    We say that current flows from positive to negative, yet the actual flow of electrons is from is from negative to positive.
    With lightning I’d say there’s a movement of charge (ie a current flows) between the cloud and the earth. The path this takes makes no difference whether the current flows from earth to cloud or cloud to earth.
    It is easier to think in terms of lightning striking from the cloud, it is the cloud which changes its charge thus causing lightning.
    Not that it makes much difference to a person being struck by lightning, do you care about the direction of current flow when you have several Amperes flowing through you?

    Reply
  3. dearieme Avatar
    dearieme

    What about cloud-to-cloud lightning? (Not being smart alec: true ignorance here.)

    Reply
  4. soru Avatar
    soru

    cloud to cloud lighting always flows from right to left.
    Tim adds: Not south of the equator! left to right

    Reply
  5. Mikein Appalachia Avatar
    Mikein Appalachia

    Lightning can be ground-cloud, cloud-ground, or cloud-cloud. Some research indicates that cloud-ground is the most severe. Incidently, a “billion” volts is a gross exageration by several powers of ten.

    Reply
  6. Rob Avatar
    Rob

    I’m no expert in the matter and my knowledge is limited to what I can remember from a television documentary watched some time ago but this is what I think happens. As a bolt of lightening approaches the ground from the cloud, a small lightening trailer rises from the earth to meet the decending bolt which then follown the track to earth of the rising bolt.

    Reply
  7. Rob Avatar
    Rob

    I should have mentioned that the desrtuctive power mainly comes from the descending bolt of lightening.

    Reply
  8. sortapundit Avatar
    sortapundit

    Lightning is caused by God’s disco lights.
    I didn’t pay much attention in school.

    Reply

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