Originally posted by Claw
Somewhat.
The way I understand it, lightning works something like this:
The movement of the clouds/atmosphere causes a separation of charges in the clouds and electrons strip away causing a surplus of negative charge at the bottom of the clouds. A lightning bolt will travel down toward the positive field of the earth in what is called step leaders. These step leaders are approximately 50 meters long, which is why you see the forked pieces in a lightning bolt as opposed to a straight bolt. These leaders are looking for something to connect with, and that something is a positive streamer. Pretty much anything can launch a positive streamer: a person, a blade of grass, a building, etc. There may be several things launching positive streamers at the same time, but many are failed streamers, and one will actually connect.
Lightning hitting the highest object around is a myth, and here is why: say a negative step leader starts branching down out of a cloud. It goes 50 meters, branches off, goes another 50, then another, and all the while the negative charge may be growing. A step leader might pass right by a high building that has launched a positive streamer, because the leader is too weak to make the connection. But as it branches another time or two, it might gain enough charge to connect with another streamer that been launched closer to the ground. So the lightning might go right past a lightning rod if it hasn’t enough potential to make the connection.
Once the negative step leader and the positive streamer have made the connection, you have a lightning bolt. The forked branches of the bolt discharge in sections, which is what caused the flickering. The lightning flash actually goes from ground to cloud, not the other way around. The bolt is around an inch in diameter, and is hotter than the surface of the sun. It’s so hot, in fact, that it superheats the surrounding air and the adjacent molecules speed away faster than the speed of sound. It’s the air moving past the sound barrier that causes a sonic boom that we call thunder.
Most lightning strikes happen from cloud to cloud, and not from earth to cloud. The region where I live here in Florida is the lightning capital of the United States. It can get pretty nasty sometimes. Right after a strike, you are usually safe for a few seconds until enough charge has built up to cause another strike.
A vehicle is one of the safest places to be during a lightning storm, because the car acts like a Faraday cage, transferring the electricity around you and harmlessly to earth. It’s not because you have rubber tires that makes you safe, rather the fact that the car conducts the electricity around you so easily. Our bodies are made of about 3 percent saltwater, which is why we make good conductors if we are hit directly. Standing under a tree is unsafe, since a bolt can hit the tree and jump from it to you, or heat the tree so much that splinters can fly out and hit you.
If you are in a lighting storm, or see a nasty cloud nearby and feel the hair on your head standing up a little, chances are you’re a good candidate for a direct hit. The best thing to do is squat down on your haunches and make yourself into a ball. Electricity fires best off a sharp, flat edge, not a ball. Rubber shoes won’t help you, and neither will rubber underwear. I’ve tried that.
) which are very high, these ions are seperated by the electric potential, with the positive charge accumulated on the lower end, therefore rain is usually positively charged. This charge obviously compensates the negative charge of the ground, maybe even creating a positive charge (locally).