How is thunder made for kids

Clouds are made of tiny water droplets. Then the ice crystals move to the top of the cloud and the water droplets stay near the bottom of the cloud. When they move past each other and rub against each other, they make static electricity.

You can make static electricity by rubbing a balloon against your hair and then the static electricity makes your hair stand up. Sometimes, if you have socks on and you rub your feet on a carpet, then it makes a tiny shock when you touch somebody else. That is also static electricity. The static electricity in the cloud makes the ice crystals positively charged and the water droplets negatively charged. If you have ever played with magnets, you will know that the positive side of a magnet is attracted to the negative side of another magnet — but it pushes away the positive side of another magnet.

Opposites attract each other: those with the same charge that is, positive or negative push each other away. The same thing happens with the negatively charged water droplets near the bottom of the thunder cloud.

All the negative bits that collect near the bottom of the cloud are called electrons. Sheet lightning appears as flashes of light that seem to light up or illuminate entire clouds. What is heat lightning? Heat lightning is a term used to describe lightning flashes that are too far away from you to hear the thunder. The reason that it is called heat lightning is that it appears most often on a hot summer day when the sky is clear overhead.

What is high-altitude lightning? What is ribbon lightning? Ribbon lightning is when a bolt of lightning separates due to wind and appears as parallel lightning streaks. What is chain or bead lightning? Chain or bead lightning is when a lightning bolt is broken into dotted lines while fading.

What is ball lightning? Ball lightning is a rare form of lightning. It usually appears as a reddish, luminous ball, but can come in any color. Ball lightning is usually spherical in shape and about one foot in diameter.

Hissing noises originate from such balls and they sometimes make a loud noise when they explode. What is St. It is created when tiny positively charged sparks reach up in response to negatively charges in the air or clouds above the ground.

If a thunderstorm is nearby, St. What is anvil lightning? A bolt at the top of a thunderstorm arcs away from the main cloud and strikes the ground where the skies above often appear clear. It is illuminated brightly by the return stroke. A leader reaches from the cloud to the ground below, looking for positive charges. This return stroke releases tremendous energy, bright light and thunder. They are created when leaders are created and reach from the ground to the sky looking for a leader to connect with.

ARC — A channel of ionized air with electric current flowing through it, usually used to describe those occurring during a fault on an energized power line. Lightning Facts The movement of rain and ice inside a thundercloud creates an electrical charge, with the negative charge electrons forming at the bottom of the cloud and the positive charge protons forming at the top.

A lightning flash is no more than one inch wide. Thousands of people are struck by lightning every year. Direct lightning strikes are usually fatal. What we see as a flash of lightning may actually be four different strokes in exactly the same place, one right after another.

Lightning is a powerful burst of electricity that happens very quickly during a thunderstorm. Lightning can occur inside clouds, between clouds and from clouds to the ground. Around one quarter of lightning is from cloud to ground.

Lightning is caused by an electrical charge in the atmosphere that is unbalanced. Opposites attract so the negative charge at the bottom of the cloud seeks out a positive charge to connect with.

There are bolts of lightning striking somewhere on Earth every second. Lightning strikes usually last around 1 or 2 microseconds. Lightning contains millions of volts of electricity. Lightning is usually produced by cumulonimbus clouds that are very tall and dense.

Lightning can also occur during volcanic eruptions, dust storms, snow storms, forest fires and tornadoes.

The study of lightning is known as fulminology. Astraphobia is the fear of thunder and lightning. Click Here to see if there are any active warnings in your area. Look for darkening skies, flashes of lightning, or increasing winds.

If you hear the sound of thunder, go to a safe place immediately. The best place to go is a sturdy building or a car, but make sure the windows in the car are shut.

Avoid sheds, picnic areas, baseball dugouts and bleachers. If there is no shelter around you, stay away from trees. Crouch down in the open area, keeping twice as far away from a tree as far as it is tall. Put your feet together and place your hands over your ears to minimize hearing damage from thunder. Swimming, wading, snorkeling and scuba diving are not safe. Stay away from clotheslines, fences, and drop your backpacks because they often have metal on them. Do not use a corded telephone.

Lightning may strike exterior phone lines. Do not use electric equipment like computers and appliances during a storm. Stay away from windows and doors and stay off porches.

Call or send for help immediately. The injured person does not carry an electrical charge, so it is okay to touch them. All you need is a balloon and a light bulb! Make Lightning Experiment: Here is another great experiment that allows the kids to make lightning. This teaches kids about the positive and negative charges and where they come from. Sticking A Balloon To A Wall Experiment: Here is an experiment that allows the kids to learn about static electricity by sticking a balloon to a wall.

Bend Water Experiment: Here is another static electricity experiment that bends water. Make Your Hair Stand Up Experiment: Here is yet another static electricity experiment with using a balloon and your hair. How far away can you see lightning and hear thunder? Within those distant thunderstorms, the lightning bolts can be seen as much as miles from us, depending on the height of the bolt, the clarity of the air, and our elevation.

Thunder, in comparison, has a much shorter range of detection - usually less than 15 miles in a quiet rural setting and under 5 miles in a noisy city environment. Why are you less likely to see static electricity in the summer? In the summer, our dew points are much higher due to warm and humid air coming from the Gulf of Mexico and that is why we have humid weather.

In the winter, our dew points are much lower due to cold and direr air coming from Canada. The lower the dew point the better it is to create static electricity, so that's why you see it more in the winter.

What is cloud-to-ground lightning? All lightning is dangerous, but cloud-to-ground lightning is the most dangerous type of lightning.

Most cloud-to-ground lightning strikes come from the negatively charged bottom of the cloud traveling to the positively charged ground below. Cloud-to-ground lightning bolts strike the tall objects, like trees and buildings. These lightning strikes can cause fire and property damage. If you're the tallest object, then lighting can strike you.

Lightning is the second weather related killed. What is intracloud lightning? Intracloud lightning is the most common type of lightning. This occurs when there are both positive and negative charges within the same cloud. Usually, the process takes place within the cloud and looks like a bright flash of light which flickers. What is intercloud lightning? Intercloud lightning is less common. It's when a lightning strike occurs when there are positive and negative charges within different clouds and the strike travels in the air between them.

What is forked lightning? Forked lighting appears as jagged lines of light. They can have several branches. Forked lightning can be seen shooting from the clouds to the ground, from one cloud to another cloud, or from a cloud out into the air. This lightning can strike up to 10 miles away from a thunderstorm.

What is sheet lightning? Sheet lightning appears as flashes of light that seem to light up or illuminate entire clouds. What is heat lightning? Heat lightning is a term used to describe lightning flashes that are too far away from you to hear the thunder. The reason that it is called heat lightning is that it appears most often on a hot summer day when the sky is clear overhead. What is high-altitude lightning?

High-altitude lightning has been given other names such as "red sprites," "green elves," and "blue jets. You can't see these types of lightning from the ground. What is ribbon lightning? Ribbon lightning is when a bolt of lightning separates due to wind and appears as parallel lightning streaks. What is chain or bead lightning? Chain or bead lightning is when a lightning bolt is broken into dotted lines while fading.

What is ball lightning? Ball lightning is a rare form of lightning. It usually appears as a reddish, luminous ball, but can come in any color. Ball lightning is usually spherical in shape and about one foot in diameter. Hissing noises originate from such balls and they sometimes make a loud noise when they explode.