Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
This video captures the iconic skyscraper being hit by multiple bolts, illustrating the frequency and unpredictability of lightning strikes. The Empire State Building in New York City is the ...
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.
A key factor in the ignition of these wildfires is the type of lightning, with long-continuing-current (LCC) lightning being particularly significant. The risk of lightning-ignited wildfires is influenced not only by the occurrence of LCC lightning but also by the availability of dry fuel, which is influenced by how much rain has fallen before.
Such storms are rarely severe and are a result of local atmospheric instability; hence the term "air mass thunderstorm". When such storms have a brief period of severe weather associated with them, it is known as a pulse severe storm. Pulse severe storms are poorly organized and occur randomly in time and space, making them difficult to forecast.
Severe storms sweep across the U.S. each year, bringing lightning, flooding, tornadoes and hail.
When severe weather looms, storm alerts are important tools for keeping people informed. The National Weather Service shares alerts as it warns of potential risks from thunderstorms, flooding ...
Severe weather is one type of extreme weather, which includes unexpected, unusual, severe, or unseasonal weather and is by definition rare for that location or time of the year. [5] Due to the effects of climate change , the frequency and intensity of some of the extreme weather events are increasing, for example, heatwaves and droughts .
Global map of lightning frequency--strikes/km 2 /yr. The high lightning areas are on land located in the tropics. Areas with almost no lightning are the Arctic and Antarctic, closely followed by the oceans which have only 0.1 to 1 strikes/km 2 /yr. The map on the right shows that lightning is not distributed evenly around the planet. [5]