• Question: What causes lightening

    Asked by reaganbrien to Ben, Dave, Ed, Sam, Susana on 24 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: David Briggs

      David Briggs answered on 24 Jun 2013:

      Lightning is causes by static electricity building up in clouds during a thunderstorm – when this happens, a difference in electric charge builds up between the clouds and the earth below, causing an electrostatic charge to build up.

      When this gets large enough, the charge is released very rapidly in the form of a bolt of lightning.

    • Photo: Sam Horrell

      Sam Horrell answered on 24 Jun 2013:

      It all comes from static electricity. Just like when you touch something and get a little shock, but on a much bigger scale. As David said, positive and negative ions become seperated in the clouds, over time the change builds and this makes the oppositely charged atoms come together and when they do the charges migrate out of the clouds as electrical discharge.

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