Lightning Frenzy

In 2007 my family and I lived in Florida. One of the things I remember most about Florida is the crazy lightning storms every night. I never knew why there was so much lightning in Florida, but not in New York. I decided to research it for my blog.

I started by looking in the textbook. The book doesn't mention anything about lightning, but it does have a chapter on electricity. It defines electricity as "a form of energy...a flow of electrons". Electrons are negatively charged particles that are found in the atoms of all elements. Each electron has a tiny negative charge of electricity. Light is another form of energy created by certain objects such as lightning. Light travels 186,000 miles/second. It travels so quickly that earthly distances appear to be instant, which is why lightning only flashes for a split second. I now have to find how both electricity and light are created in the sky.

 Lightning is electricity formed during a thunderstorm by the build up of large electrical fields in high anvil shaped cumulonimbus clouds. As  warm air rises, cold air moves in and meets the warm moist air which causes the warm air to rise rapidly forming large, dense, tall towers of  thunderstorm clouds. Lightning is produced when liquid and ice particles above the freezing level collide, and build up large electrical fields in the clouds. Once these electric fields become large enough, a giant "spark" occurs like static electricity, reducing the charge separation.  

Florida has all the right ingredients for lightning, especially in summer. It is a sub-tropic climate, meaning that the humidity is always very high (80-100% most of the time), so there is a lot of precipitation in the air. Also the air temperature gets very hot. Hot air rises, and mixed with the humidity, or water vapor levels in the atmosphere, clouds are formed. These clouds grow into thunderstorms

 http://www.myuniversalfacts.com/2006/03/what-causes-lightning.html


http://www.weatherquestions.com/What_causes_lightning.htm

So now I know why there is so much lightning in Florida. I figured it had something to do with the heat, but I never knew humidity played an effect. I did not know lightning was caused by liquid particles rubbing together. I never thought water could make electricity! That's kind of ironic.

This is a video of one storm in Florida. This is what I had to see almost every night!! Look, it's crazy!