- What Causes Lightning and Thunder? science project
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Lightning and thunder… nature’s most powerful show. But what really causes these explosive forces?
It starts high in the clouds. Water droplets and ice crystals collide, creating a buildup of static electricity. Positive charges rise to the top of the cloud, while negative charges sink to the bottom, creating an intense electrical field.
When the difference between these charges becomes too intense… ZAP! Electricity races down toward the ground as lightning, heating the air to over 30,000 degrees Celsius—hotter than the surface of the Sun.
This superheated air expands so fast that it creates a shockwave—the sound we call thunder. That’s why you see lightning first, then hear the boom: light travels faster than sound.
Every lightning strike is a reminder of the raw energy within our planet’s atmosphere… a force that can be as beautiful as it is dangerous.
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