How exactly lightning forms is still open for debate. The most commonly accepted theory is that electrons are stripped off colliding ice particles caught in a thunderstorm’s updraft. Once these particles lose an electron, their net remaining charge becomes positive. These positively charged particles will rise high into the upper most part of the thunderstorm where they tend to collect. Conversely, other particles in the cloud acquire an electron after the collision and as a result, their net remaining charge is negative. The negatively charged particles tend to collect at the base of the cloud.
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How and why the charge separation occurs is poorly understood. In any case, the positive charge is separated from the negative charge which in turn creates an electric field. When this electric field “short circuits”, a lightning bolt is generated. Although lightning comes in all different shapes, sizes and sometimes color there are only two types of lightning; negative and positive discharges. |
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Negative Lightning
As more and more positive charge builds in the upper part of the storm and on the ground beneath the storm, more and more negative charge builds in the lower part of the cloud. The charge separation creates an electric field. As the charge continues to build, so does the attraction between the positively and negatively charged particles. The only thing stopping the electric current from flowing is air, which happens to be a very good insulator. This allows an immense amount of charge to build up. Eventually, the insulating factor of the air will be overcome and a discharge will occur.
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If this occurs inside the cloud it is called intra-cloud lightning which accounts for about 75% of all lightning produced by a thunderstorm. If the discharge hits the ground, it’s called a cloud-to-ground strike. In either case, when a sufficient electrical potential, or charge separation overcomes the insulating factor of the air, a lighting strike occurs and electrons flow. These are examples of negative lightning because electrons flow towards the positive charge. |
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Positive Lightning
There is another type of lightning that is far more powerful, one in which positive charge flows instead of electrons. It’s called positive lightning and it’s a very real thing. Only about 5% of lightning is positive in nature and tends to occur during the peak of a severe thunderstorm or as the storm is decaying. Most positive strikes originate high in the anvil head of a thunderstorm where the positive charge tends to accumulate. However, instead of discharging with the negative charge at the base of the cloud, it travels outside the cloud and strikes the ground where there’s a pool of negative charge.
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No one really knows what causes a positive strike, but a few things are for certain. They tend to be about 5 times more powerful than a negative strike, last about 10 times longer, strike several miles away from the storm (“bolt from the blue”), and produce huge amounts of ELF and VLF radio waves. It’s commonly believed that positive strikes are responsible for most forest fires and extensive damage to electrical grids. |
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