Weather / Field note
How Lightning Forms
Charge separation inside a thunderstorm, electrical breakdown and the return stroke—explained without mixing physics with myth.
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01
Charge separation
Within a thunderstorm, collisions among ice crystals, graupel and supercooled water occur in strong updrafts. Charge becomes separated across regions of the cloud.
02
A conductive path develops
As the electrical field intensifies, air begins to break down along branching paths. When a conducting channel connects regions of opposite charge, a powerful current can flow.
03
Light and thunder
The bright return stroke is the part people most readily see. Rapid heating makes the surrounding air expand, producing the pressure wave we hear as thunder.
Sources
Primary and institutional references
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