Lightning FACTS for the Teacher to Share

• Lightning strikes the Earth about 100 times per second.
• Bolts are about 2 inches wide.
• There are about 2,000 thunderstorms on the earth at any time.
• Lightning bolts can be five times hotter than the surface of the sun. They can cook potatoes growing in fields and melt the nails in a building.
• The power in a bolt is about 3 million megawatts. This is equal to all the power made in the US at any moment.
• A stroke of lightning lasts for only a few millionths of a second. It has enough energy to run a 100-watt light bulb for three months.
• Lightning travels up to 87,000 miles a second. Humans took three days to reach the moon. It would take only two and a half seconds for lightning to get there.
• You see lightning before you hear thunder because light travels faster than sound.
• There are different types of lightning. Not all bolts strike the ground. Most occur within and between thunderclouds.
• Lightning can strike the same place twice.
• Lightning can strike even when it isn’t raining.
• Lightning kills 80 to 100 people in the US a year. Most deaths happen to people outside, and during the summer. If lightning doesn’t kill you, it can knock you out, burn your hair, melt your watch, cause brain damage, amnesia, heart damage or paralysis.
• Lightning kills livestock, causes forest and brush fires, causes damage to buildings, communications systems, and power lines.
• Lightning is an extreme example of static electricity.
• Heat lightning is really lightning from a thunderstorm far away.

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