Lightning, not arson, caused most Victorian bushfires last summer. Credit: Twitter As last summer’s horrific bushfires raged, so too did debate about what caused them. Despite the prolonged drought and ever worsening climate change, some people sought to blame the fires largely on arson. Federal Coalition MPswere among those pushing […]
Lightning is one of the greatest natural forces on our planet. New mapping tools are revealing just how big it is. (Image: © Shutterstock) On Oct. 22, 2017, storm clouds gathering above the central United States released a flash of lightning so huge that it illuminated the skies above Texas, […]
Researchers at EPFL have developed a novel way of predicting lightning strikes to the nearest 10 to 30 minutes and within a radius of 30 kilometers. The system uses a combination of standard data from weather stations and artificial intelligence. Lightning is one of the most unpredictable phenomena in nature. […]
Lightning was detected in association with a thunderstorm located over the Arctic Ocean on Saturday, Aug. 11. (Source: National Weather Service) We’re accustomed to lightning crackling within thunderstorms over relatively warm places like Florida — which happens to be the U.S. lightning champ. But lightning near the North Pole? Well, […]
CORRADO CIMARELLI Much of the lightning that flickers around and within the ash plumes of erupting volcanoes is triggered by static electricity, which builds up when ash particles scrape against each other in flight. Now, a field study suggests Earth’s natural radioactivity may also help volcanic plumes get electrically charged—even […]
Lightning seen from the ground can awe—lightning seen from space is awesome. j_arrad Yesterday, NOAA released the first video from it’s newest satellite’s Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) instrument, showing a string of storms as it made its way across the United States. The instrument watches for lightning strikes across the Western hemisphere, […]
A thunderstorm above Unna, in Germany. Credit: smial/Wikipedia. Lightning may strike less often in future across the globe as the planet warms, a scientific study suggests. The research forecasts a 15 per cent drop in the average number of lightning flashes worldwide by the turn of this century, if global […]
A Kyoto University-based team has unraveled the mystery of gamma-ray emission cascades caused by lightning strikes. Credit: Kyoto University/Teruaki Enoto A storm system approaches: the sky darkens, and the low rumble of thunder echoes from the horizon. Then without warning… Flash! Crash! — lightning has struck. This scene, while familiar […]
In this Sept. 5, 2015 file photo, a lightning strike occurs as Texas State warms up in Doak Campbell Stadium prior to an NCAA college football game against Florida State in Tallahassee, Fla. Lightning used to kill about 300 Americans a year, but lightning deaths are on pace to hit […]
Upside down lightning is a seemingly rare weather event. Sometimes lightning doesn’t go down. photograph by Elka Liot and Grégory Moulard Muscapix Everyone loves a lightning show: big bolts of electricity heading to Earth. But there’s an entire display above those billowing masses that you are probably missing. In 2001, […]