NORFOLK, Va. — Lightning is a common occurrence in Virginia and North Carolina, but have you ever wondered how and why it forms?
Think of the formation of lightning as if you are playing with magnets. Clouds are made of ice crystals and when those crystals are forced to bump into each other, they release charged particles. These particles are either positively or negatively charged. The positive charge pushes to the top of the cloud while the negative charge sinks to the bottom.
We get intra-cloud or cloud-to-cloud lightning when the negatively charged bottom of the cloud is attracted to the positively charged top. When the energies of two charges connect, it creates that flash of light and booming sound.
The ground on Earth is also charged. Its positive charge is attracted to the negative charge at the bottom of the cloud. The negative charge travels down toward the positively charged Earth. This is called a “step leader” and leads to cloud-to-ground lightning strikes.
When negatively charged particles emit their energy to a positive charge, we call that a negative strike. It’s the most common type of lightning.
There are also instances when the positively charged particles from the top of a cloud emit their energy to a negative charge on Earth. These are known as positive strikes and are more dangerous and rare than negative strikes. Positive lightning strikes make up less than 5% of all lightning strikes.
Remember, "when thunder roars, head indoors." Lightning can heat the air around it up to temperatures around five times hotter than the sun.
That's how your weather works!