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Table of Contents
pages Myths About Lightning...............1-4 The Different Types of Lightning...........................5-10 The Colors of lightning........................................11-15 Safety ....................................................................16-19 How Lightning and Thunder are Created .........................................20 Glossary................................................................22-24 About the Authors................................................ 25 Bibliography.........................................................26

Myths The ancient Greeks thought Zeus, king of the gods, catapulted thunder bolts from the dark skies. Vikings thought their god Thor was striking a big , powerful hammer against an anvil to produce thunder and lightning. Native Tribes thought it was the mighty Thunderbird, flashing its colorful feathers and flapping its big wings. Some people thought if they rung church bells, it would break up the lighting so it would not strike them.

Thor, a Viking

Lightning comes in many different varieties, but there are three main categories: Cloud-to-ground Lightning is lightning that goes from the clouds to the ground. it is The most dangerous type of lightning That scientists know of, although all lightning is dangerous. it takes a negative charge from the clouds and a positive charge from the ground and creates the bolt.

Intra cloud lightning is lightning that travels from one part of a cloud to another part of the same cloud. it is the most common kind of lightning and is usually the first bolt during a thunderstorm. There is a negative charge in one part of a cloud and a positive charge on the other part of the cloud. the charge jumps from one part of a cloud to the other part of the same cloud.

Inter cloud Lightning happens when lightning jumps from one cloud to another cloud. This is the rarest out of the three main types. There is a negative charge that jumps from one cloud to another cloud that has a positive charge.

Although there are many other kinds of lightning, their names just describe how they look or when the lightning appears.

Of the three main types of lightning, there are many variations that all look different. There are types more than are shown in this book.

This type of lightning only happens when the weather is very hot.

Heat Lightning
Bead lightning is very rare and looks like glowing beads are being dropped from the sky.

Bead lightning

Ball lightning is a large round spark that appears to be floating. Its size ranges from being the size of a tennis ball to being the size of a soccer ball.

Ball Lightning

Sheet lightning seems to light up the entire sky. Also, sheet lightning is another name for Intra cloud lightning.

Sheet Lightning

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Lightning is just a visible discharge of electricity. It happens when regions of the cloud get gusts of wind called up drafts and down drafts, which move ice, hail, and frozen water droplets known as graupel. The graupel collide with additional water droplets and ice particles, which makes a static charge. This is like when you rub your feet on a carpet and touch a metal door handle. You transfer the charge to the door handle like lightning to the ground. The charge in the cloud builds up massively and disburses the electricity to the ground. Lightning usually takes the easiest way, so it hits a high place like a tree or a building.

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Everything is made up of atoms and atoms have electrons in them. Because electrons carry a negative charge, the result is a cloud with a negatively charged bottom and a positively charged top. A lightning strike is usually a negative charge from a cloud to the positively charged ground

Positive Charge

Negative Charge

Positive Charge

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Thunder is caused by lightning. When lightning strikes, it heats the air around it three times hotter than the suns surface, causing the air to expand. The expanding air a creates a partial vacuum that surounds the lightnings path. A partial vacuum is sort of an invisible tube with no air in it. When the air around the tube cools, it make the air want to come back to the place with no air. This causes the tube to vibrate. When you talk, you vibrate your vocal-cords. Similarly the vibration of the tube of air around a lightning bolt makes the sound of thunder.

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What should you do in a lightning storm? Hide out under a tree? No. Hide in a cave? Not there. Climb a tree? NO! Curl up in a ball? Well, yeah that might sound silly, but lightning will strike the closest objects to the sky, which are usually trees. The safest place to be in a thunderstorm is a house with a lightning rod. Another safe place to be is in a car with the windows rolled up, and as long as you dont touch any metal parts, you will be perfectly safe. Lightning will strike the closest thing to the sky, so climbing a mountain in a thunder storm is a very bad idea!

Did you know lightning can reach up to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit? Thats three times hotter than the sun!!

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Another thing you should NEVER do during a lightning storm is use an electronic device PLUGGED INTO A WALL. A cell phone or a mobile device (if it is NOT plugged in) is fine to use. but, Objects like lamps or computers are very dangerous in a lightning storm. using head phones plugged into a computer is not a good idea. If lightning hits your house, the shock could go through the cords and hit you through your headphones or maybe even a keyboard mouse.

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Whenever there is a lightning storm, you should always go inside if possible. after a lightning storm, you should wait for the last crash, then wait an extra 30 minutes before going outside again. During a lightning storm, NEVER GO NEAR WATER, inside or out, under any circumstances! If you are in water and lightning strikes it, you could get shocked, become paralyzed, and drown!

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How far away is lightning? Well, thats a good question, but you can answer that yourself! This is how you do it. The next time you see a flash of lightning but do not hear the sound of thunder, start counting one Mississippi, two Mississippi, until you hear the bang. Each five Mississippis counts as a mile. There are about 310 million people in the United States and only about 300 people get injured yearly by lightning and only 57 people die each year, so it is rare to get struck by lightning. but still, BEWARE! So when a lightning storm comes, you should ALWAYS have a plan!

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Glossary
Additional: More of something. Atmosphere: The mass of gasses surrounding the earth. Made up of air. Catapulted: An ancient military weapon use to shoot or hurl stones, arrows or other objects. Disperse: To break up and send off in different directions. Down Drafts: A conditions in which the wind is blowing down. Electromagnetic Spectrum: Photons from the sun travel through space carrying different amounts of energy. Electron: A subatomic particle that carries the smallest negative electric charge. Inter: Outside of a large group. Intra: Inside of a small group. Lightning rod: A metal rod at the top of a house or a building to conduct lighting, so it doesnt strike anything.

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Massively: Big, Huge Negative Charge: Molecules and atoms having more electrons than protons. Partial Vacuum: In one place with no air. Positive Charge: Electricity having more protons than electrons. Region: A certain area or division, part of a country or the world. Refracted/Refraction: Bending of a light wave. Static Charge: Electrical charges in the atmosphere, such as those produced by lightning. Up Drafts: A condition in which the wind is blowing up. Visible Discharge: That can be seen. Wavelengths: The distance between two like points of a wave.

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Pages Ball Lightning...................................6 Bead Lightning..................................5 Cloud-to-Ground Lightning..............2 Electromagnetic Spectrum...............9 Electrons..........................................13 Heat Lightning..................................5 Inter-Cloud Lightning......................4 Intra Cloud lightning........................3 Lightning Rod..................................16 Negative Charge...............................13 Partial Vacuum................................14 Positive Charge................................13 Refracted/Refraction........................8 Sheet Lightning.................................6 Static Charge....................................12 Up Drafts..........................................12

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Visible Discharge.............................12 Wavelengths......................................8

Bibliography
Works Cited "Air molecules scatter wavelengths to create different colors in light." Cornell Center for Materials Research. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Dec. 2012. <http://www.ccmr.cornell.edu/education/ask/ index.html?quid=1271>. Fitzpatrick, Josh. "Lightning Colors and Rainfall." WSAZ NewsChannel 3. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2012. <http://www.wsaz.com/blogs/askjosh/92766324.html>. "Lighting Varieties." NOVA. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2012. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ sciencenow/3214/02-vari-nf.html>. "lightning." ENCYCLOPEDIA Britannica Facts matter. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2012. <http:// www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/340767/lightning>. "Lightning." National Weather Service JetStream - Online School for Weather. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2013. <http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream/lightning/lightning.htm>. "l i g h t n i n g." s e v e r e s t o r m s. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2012. <http://library.thinkquest.org/ C003603/english/severestorms/lightning.shtml>. Prof. Oddfellow. "Bolts From the Blue:The Electric Colors of Lightning." COLOURlovers. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2012. <http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2008/02/04/bolts-from-the-bluethe-electric-colors-of-lightning>. Robinson, Dan. "Cloud-to-Ground Lightning - Part 1." STORM HIGHWAY. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2012. <http://stormhighway.com/cgdesc.shtml>. "What causes thunder?" SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2012. <http:// www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-causes-thunder>.

How is lightning created? What types of lightning are there? How many colors are there? What should YOU do in a lightning storm? All those question and MORE are answered in this book!