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Under optimum conditions, the most intense thunderstorms can be seen at up to 100 miles (160 km) over flat terrain or water when the clouds are illuminated by large lightning discharges. However, an upper limit of 30–50 miles (48–80 km) is more common due to topography, trees on the horizon, low to mid-level clouds, and the fact that local ...
Pyrocumulonimbus are cumuliform clouds that can form over a large fire and that are particularly dry. [10] When the higher levels of the atmosphere are cooler, and the surface is thus warmed to extreme temperatures due to a wildfire, volcano, or other event, convection will occur, and produce clouds and lightning.
Lightning is a natural phenomenon, more specifically an atmospheric electrical phenomenon. It consists of electrostatic discharges occurring through the atmosphere between two electrically charged regions, either both existing within the atmosphere or one within the atmosphere and one on the ground, with these regions then becoming partially or wholly electrically neutralized.
(Water is a polar molecule that can carry a charge, so it is capable of creating the charge separation needed to produce lightning). [108] These electrical discharges can be up to a thousand times more powerful than lightning on the Earth. [109] The water clouds can form thunderstorms driven by the heat rising from the interior. [110]
Sheet lightning is cloud-to-cloud lightning that exhibits a diffuse brightening of the surface of a cloud, caused by the actual discharge path being hidden or too far away. The lightning itself cannot be seen by the spectator, so it appears as only a flash, or a sheet of light. The lightning may be too far away to discern individual flashes.
About 25% of all lightning events worldwide are strikes between the atmosphere and earth-bound objects. Most are intracloud (IC) lightning and cloud-to-cloud (CC), where discharges only occur high in the atmosphere. [1] [2] Lightning strikes the average commercial aircraft at least once a year, but modern engineering and design means this is ...
Thundersnow can occur during a normal snowstorm that sustains strong vertical mixing which allows for favorable conditions for lightning and thunder to occur. It can also occur from the lake effect or ocean effect thunderstorm which is produced by cold air passing over relatively warm water; this effect commonly produces snow squalls over the ...
Cloud-to-ground lightning. Typically, lightning discharges 30,000 amperes, at up to 100 million volts, and emits light, radio waves, x-rays and even gamma rays. [1] Plasma temperatures in lightning can approach 28,000 kelvins. Atmospheric electricity describes the electrical charges in the Earth's atmosphere (or that of another planet).