Or take advantage of inside time to play a board game, read a book, or write down what you're thinking and feeling at that very moment. Maybe you'll decide to draw a picture or write a poem about this storm. By the time you do that, you might look outside and notice the skies are brightening. This storm has passed, just like all of them do. Now what? Hey, those puddles look ready to jump in! Go ahead, you're waterproof.
And sometimes the sun comes out right away after a storm. And you know what that means. If you look for it, you just might see that super-splash of color in the sky — a perfect rainbow! Larger text size Large text size Regular text size. Dark and Stormy Can Be Scary It was such a hot, sunny day, but now the skies have darkened to bluish-gray.
Understand what's happening. Know how to stay safe. Find your calm. Step 2: Know How to Stay Safe No matter how much you know about the science of storms, you still need to be inside when one is happening.
The good news is that you can learn rules to follow that keep you safe when lightning is flashing: Get out of the pool, lake, ocean, or any body of water. Water conducts electricity, meaning that electricity can travel through water. If you're outside, seek shelter in a house or building.
If there's no house or building, wait out the storm in a car. That is, they need a first download, either cloud-cloud or cloud-ground, to issue their lightning strike risk alert. For this reason, these systems are used for the analysis of past events , but they are not always suitable for taking preventive measures. Detectors based on monitoring of the electromagnetic field have traditionally been used to locate thunderstorms.
One of these current electromagnetic detectors also known as LLS, Lightning Location System must be able to record in different categories all cloud-ground lightning strikes of any polarity and cloud-cloud discharges, and also to locate them within a determined area 2. In addition, these storm detectors can measure the intensity and type of lightning, and even track storm cells and the evolution of the electrical charge structure in real time 3 , 4.
Storm detectors based on electromagnetic field are not always suitable for preventive purposes, especially in cases where the storm forms just above the target to be protected.
LLS base their lightning strike hazard alarm on the distance between the previous discharges and the target to be protected. In this way, they assume that a discharge close to the area to be protected implies that the following lightning will be produced in that area.
If the discharge occurs further away, it would entail a lower risk of lightning striking the target. However, if the first thunderstorm discharge occurs on the same target, there will be no prior alarm and no necessary preventive actions will be taken. On other occasions, there were fewer than 3 lightning bolts during a 2-minute period before the person was struck by the lightning, so victims did not have enough reaction time to seek appropriate shelter.
Unlike storm detectors based on electromagnetic field, electrostatic field sensors are capable of detecting the formation of electrical storms over the area to be protected and, therefore, of issuing the risk alarm with an adequate anticipation time to take preventive actions. In the IEC standard on Storm Warning Systems, four phases are established in the evolution of an electrical storm:.
Electromagnetic field-based storm detectors can detect phases 2, 3, and 4 but not phase 1. They can locate long-distance storms where discharges are already occurring. Electrostatic field-based detectors are the only ones that detect all phases of the storm, since the measurement of the atmospheric electrostatic field is the only direct and unequivocal indicator of the risk of a lightning strike before it occurs.
Detection by local electrostatic field measurement provides the only robust preventive protection, as it monitors the gradual formation of a thunderstorm, from the initial phase to good weather, as defined in IEC Furthermore, electromagnetic field-based storm detectors use a countdown from the last detected discharge to determine that there is no risk of lightning strike: if no discharge occurs within a certain time limit, the alarm is ended.
However, there may be cases where the risk is still present and a shock occurs just after the defined time limit, or even the alarm lasts longer than necessary, which can lead to significant financial losses. Detection by local electrostatic field measurement provides the only robust preventative protection, as it monitors the gradual formation of a thunderstorm, from the initial phase to good weather, as defined in IEC Ultimately, the only system that provides the risk of a real lightning strike are storm detectors based on the measurement of the electrostatic field, which can detect all phases of the storm, indicating both its formation or approach and its dissipation or distance.
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Lightning is one of nature's most recurrent and common spectacles. Around the world, there are over 3,, flashes every day. Trees can often be destroyed by lightning strikes. When lightning hits a tree, it usually travels just below the tree's bark where there is a layer of sap and water. This layer becomes instantly heated and expands causing the bark to be blasted off the tree and sometimes splitting the wood. While nitrogen is in the air all around us, for plants to be able to absorb it a process vital for their growth they rely on a process called Nitrogen fixation.
Although much of this process is done by bacteria and algae, the extreme heat of a lightning strike causes nitrogen to bond with oxygen to create nitrogen oxides which combine with moisture in the air to fall as rain and water plants with nitrate-rich water.
While the intensity of a lightning strike can make them appear as thick bolts across the sky, the actual width of a lightning bolt is only about cm. The average length of a lightning bolt is about miles. While lightning storms are impressive in their own right, they don't quite compare to the spectacle when volcanic eruptions trigger lightning strikes. When an eruption occurs, earth and ash are thrown into the air in a giant plume, colliding to create an electrical charge.
In the same way as normal lightning, the imbalance between the plume's electrical charge and the charge in the atmosphere leads to lightning strikes.
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