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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 ...
Intense forest fires, such as those seen in the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season, can create their own weather systems that can produce lightning (also called Fire Lightning) and other weather phenomena. [28] Intense heat from a fire causes air to rapidly rise within the smoke plume, causing the formation of pyrocumulonimbus clouds. Cooler ...
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.
The amount of water that can exist as vapor in a given volume increases with the temperature. When the amount of water vapor is in equilibrium above a flat surface of water the level of vapor pressure is called saturation and the relative humidity is 100%. At this equilibrium there are equal numbers of molecules evaporating from the water as ...
(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]
The overall risk of being struck by lightning is very low, with odds of one in 15,300 of being hit in your lifetime (defined as 80 years), according to the National Weather Service. And you can ...
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).
Here's what to know about thundersnow: Winter snow storm: Fierce winter storm slamming Mid-Atlantic; DC could get a foot of snow Thundersnow observed in St. Louis during winter snow storm ...