What Causes Thunderstorms:
Severe Thunderstorms and Thunderstorms are not seasonal and can develop at anytime!
Keep yourself, family and friends alert of Severe Thunderstorms!
Severe Thunderstorms can be deadly to Humans and animals and cause havoc
with electrical and electronic devices.
Thunderstorms are what create Tornadoes, Lightning, Strong Winds, Hail and
can cause Flash Flooding. Lightning and Thunder from Thunderstorms
result from the charge and discharge of electrical energy.
Air that rises then descends during a thunderstorm causes the positive and negative charges
to separate producing a channel of positive charged air that heads towards
objects that have a very good conductor to ground (trees are well rooted to
ground). Next, negative energy from the object that has a good conductor to
ground starts to move up towards the clouds producing lightning.
Depending on several factors, one being how well the actual object is tied to ground
will depend on the magnitude of the lightning strike and how loud the thunder
is.
The lightning is seen first only at distances far from the actual strike, then the thunder is heard only because
light travels faster than sound.
If you were close to the object that was just struck, then you would hear the thunder and see the lightning at the
same time, which can be a very moving and scary event!
During the lightning strike so much energy is produced that all the hair on your body could stand straight
up, and as mentioned above, electronic devices are destroyed by this energy!
One device that always takes a big hit is Telephone devices, why? Because the
positive side of all telephone lines are tied to earth ground at the Central
Office, the closer you live to the Central Office equates to less resistance
in telephone wire length, thus making your telephone line electrically
closer to ground. The good news is, the Telephone industry has been getting
better at protecting your telephone equipment both at the Central Office and
outside of your house.
Our Engineers are developing hand-held computer devices that will actually tell you how far in distance
you are from the current lightning strikes. In summary, always have great respect for Thunderstorms!
Written By:
Lawrence R. Hughes Principle Engineer Hughes Technologies, Inc.
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