10 Surprising Facts About Lightning

Lightning is greatness, it is myths and fears. This is a secret to be revealed. The first information about this natural electrical phenomenon dates back to 1750. Shiny, sparkling threads connecting heaven and earth.

And in 1989, new, special types of lightning were already discovered that do not reach the Earth: elves, sprites, jets.

Lightning has been studied for centuries. How a charge is born in a cloud, why gamma or quanta are emitted during a thunderstorm – there are no answers.

10 The average lightning length is almost ten kilometers

Lightning is different. A linear, pearly, beaded, necklace-like sequence of luminous small spherical formations.

Linear lightning is the most common. An electric charge moves in the atmosphere along a thin plasma channel from the cloud to the ground. It is with her that the person is familiar.

This is a branched line. The energy that this natural phenomenon carries is realized in the form of light, sound, and thermal energy.

9. The temperature of lightning can be five times higher than the surface temperature of the sun

And this is a fact, because this figure is 27 degrees Celsius.

8. In many religions, lightning is associated with God’s punishment.

In all ancient cultures, it serves as an expressive sign of strength, speed, movement, and lightning, connecting heaven and earth, is a symbol of divine will. Places struck by lightning were considered sacred.

The punishment of heaven, the rampant natural elements are a common threat to people. Fear, the existence of which is connected to a greater extent with ignorance.

At present, the legends of the past are not given meaning. Either they began to sin less, or the fee does not scare. But it’s funny. The Greeks, for example, believed that when lightning strikes the sea, the formation of pearls increases.

In divination, lightning also left a mark. In some, lightning is an event out of a series, prognostically good, foreshadowing happiness and prosperity, a quick way out of a crisis. In others, danger, destruction.

The Aztecs believed that lightning accompanies the deceased. It splits the earth and facilitates the path of the body into its depths.

In myths, one can find a mention of lightning as the hand of a god or as a dazzling brilliance of his eyes. Flash, transformation of the world and sacred awe.

7. The first glass known to man was of natural origin.

Nature creates glass every time a huge amount of energy is released on the Earth’s surface over an extended period of time, provided that the soil composition is suitable for glass formation.

Sandy soil. It is sand that makes it possible to obtain natural glass called fulgurite (from fulgur – lightning, translated into Greek). Glass formation is possible when lightning strikes wet sand. Fulgurite has the most intricate, fabulous forms.

6. Fixed ambiguous cases of lightning strikes on aircraft

The description of these cases and photographic documents are amazing. It’s a 1 billion joule electric shock! Aircraft skin – a metal shielding mesh similar to electrically conductive gauze covers the entire aircraft.

Everyone inside is flying as if in a shielded chamber. Furthermore. Before an airliner enters service, lightning strikes are simulated. Passengers are guaranteed safety.

5. Contrary to the well-known saying, lightning often strikes the same place twice or even three times.

Repeatedly passing through the formed channel, where there is the least resistance. And hits in the same place. And people see this phenomenon as flickering.

Lightning strikes the Ostankino tower up to fifty times a year. After all, this building works like a huge lightning rod.

Indeed contrary. Thunderstorm activity of world centers of thunderstorms is known: the leader is the island of Java. Further, as the thunderstorm days decrease in the year, Africa, southern Mexico, and Panama are equatorial.

Thunderstorms in the Arctic and Antarctic are very rare. The average statistics show that there are 2-3 lightning strikes per square kilometer of land per year.

4. According to statistics, the chances of dying from a lightning strike and from falling out of bed are about equal.

This is where the law of accidents comes into play. For every two million people, 1 case.

3. In the town of Tororo, located on the territory of the African country of Uganda, about two hundred and fifty days a year – thunderstorms

This is a very real number. The geographical location of the settlement suggests the revelry of the elements in these places. This is the most thunderous place in the world.

2. American Roy Sullivan was struck by lightning seven times, but survived

This legendary man entered the Guinness Book of Records as a lightning rod man. Each encounter with a natural phenomenon left mutilations on the man’s body. But she didn’t kill. Once, on the territory of the house where the family lived, a wife was injured while hanging clothes.

Scientists explain this phenomenon by the fact that Roy Sullivan lived in a storm-prone area and the nature of his activity (the caretaker of the National Park) made the probability of being struck by lightning high.

1. In 1998, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a lightning strike on a football field killed the entire football team – 11 people

Everyone on the football field died instantly. The age of the athletes ranged from 20 to 35 years. In this case, not a single person from the opposing team was injured.

Football matches are fun for the brave. This case struck by the fact that a large number of people died at once. And, as life has shown, for football players there is a threat to die on the field during a thunderstorm.

When sporting events are planned, everything matters. And the fencing of the field in Thailand created a deadly electric ring, the height of the players (in Thailand lightning killed the tallest player), the presence of lightning rods, after all, taking into account the likelihood of a thunderstorm during the match.

Football today is the only sport where a large number of deaths from natural phenomena have been recorded during competitions.