Large thunderstorms are capable of producing other kinds of electrical phenomena called transient luminous events (TLEs) that occur high in the atmosphere. They are rarely observed visually and not well understood. The most common TLEs include red sprites, blue jets, and elves. Although sometimes used figuratively as above, the idea that lightning never strikes the same place twice is a common myth. In fact, lightning can, and often does, strike the same place more than once. Lightning in a thunderstorm is more likely to strike objects and spots that are more prominent or conductive. For instance, lightning strikes the Empire State Building in New York City on a There are variations of each type, such as "positive" versus "negative" CG flashes, that have different physical characteristics common to each which can be measured. Different common names used to describe a particular lightning event may be attributed to the same or to different events. Beingable to detect the location of thunderstormsis of great importance as it is not only the lightning strike that is dangerous, but many other factors linked to thunderstorms. These include intense rain and tornadoes.

The Earth-ionosphere waveguide traps electromagnetic VLF- and ELF waves. Electromagnetic pulses transmitted by lightning strikes propagate within that waveguide. The waveguide is dispersive, which means that their group velocity depends on frequency. The difference of the group time delay of a lightning pulse at adjacent frequencies is proportional to the distance between transmitter and receiver. Together with direction-finding methods, this allows locating lightning strikes up to distances of 10,000km from their origin. Moreover, the eigenfrequencies of the Earth-ionospheric waveguide, the Schumann resonances In addition, Blitzortung (a private global detection system that consists of over 500 detection stations owned and operated by hobbyists/volunteers) provides near real-time lightning maps at https://en.blitzortung.org.

Although often assumed to be the same thing, there is a key distinction between lightning flashes and lighting strikes. A lightning flash is what you can see, but this is often made up of severalindividual lighting strokes which arepulses of current which occur separately if though only hundredths of a second apart. The term lightning 'strike' refers to cloud-to-ground lightning, where lightning 'strikes' the ground. A bolt from the blue There is an interesting detail on this next portrayal, as the phrase ‘fabulous McQueen’ is written on the side. The cutout should be glued to stiff cardboard and then krazy-glued to the top of the lightning bolt. This section needs expansionwith: information about lightning strikes on ground vehicles, further information on how aircraft are affected, and further information on how animals and other living organisms are affected. You can help by adding to it. ( March 2021) Originally, lightning was monitored using ground-based stations that either detected the flashes of light or bursts of radio energy.

Another term used for cloud–cloud or cloud–cloud–ground lightning is "Anvil Crawler", due to the habit of charge, typically originating beneath or within the anvil and scrambling through the upper cloud layers of a thunderstorm, often generating dramatic multiple branch strokes. These are usually seen as a thunderstorm passes over the observer or begins to decay. The most vivid crawler behavior occurs in well developed thunderstorms that feature extensive rear anvil shearing. This CG was of very short duration, exhibited highly branched channels and was very bright indicating that it was staccato lightning near New Boston, Texas. Staccato lightning is a cloud-to-ground lightning (CG) strike which is a short-duration stroke that (often but not always) appears as a single very bright flash and often has considerable branching. [97] These are often found in the visual vault area near the mesocyclone of rotating thunderstorms and coincides with intensification of thunderstorm updrafts. A similar cloud-to-cloud strike consisting of a brief flash over a small area, appearing like a blip, also occurs in a similar area of rotating updrafts. [98]The children can then string all their flags together for a colorful classroom banner. 5. Have Fun Decorating a Dresser Intense forest fires, such as those seen in the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season, can create their own weather systems that can produce lightning and other weather phenomena. [126] Intense heat from a fire causes air to rapidly rise within the smoke plume, causing the formation of pyrocumulonimbus clouds. Cooler air is drawn in by this turbulent, rising air, helping to cool the plume. The rising plume is further cooled by the lower atmospheric pressure at high altitude, allowing the moisture in it to condense into cloud. Pyrocumulonimbus clouds form in an unstable atmosphere. These weather systems can produce dry lightning, fire tornadoes, intense winds, and dirty hail. [126] Extraterrestrial A volcano eruption can create lightning strikes as earth and ash collide to create an electrical charge.