From the Sky to the Earth!!

Across the woods, two soldiers were walking down a road amidst all the shooting going on around during the World War II. Suddenly they heard a noise. The lieutenant heard that and got alerted and got into cover behind some bushes and was watching for the source of sound. They heard another sound and another. Then he realised that they were foot steps.

"Flash" said the lieutenant
"Thunder" was the reply...

Then the lieutenant relaxed understanding it was the ally...

That was keyword the US soldiers used to distinguish between friend and foe during the World War II. Obviously, the flash or lightning comes before the thunder. And many times they are very destructive. What may seem unbelievable was that about 3000 people died because the lightning struck the base of the church that contained gunpowder. But the most interesting is the fact that 31 cows died because of a single lightning strike... Whoa. There have been numerous air crashes resulting in a large amount of casualties.

Few years back I saw this small story in "Young World" published by "The Hindu". A soldier was struck by a lightning. He regained health. Again the lightning struck him. This time he quit the job. Then one day when he was going on his horse, the lightning again struck him leading to his death ultimately. Two years later, lightning struck his tomb and shattered it. Poor fellow!!!

At times the lightning causes air crashes. At times lightning could be caused by the launch of a satellite and volcano eruption


Many of us know that lightning is the electrical discharge and thunder is the sound produced when lightning is produced. But what marvels the scientists is what causes them. It’s obvious that the clouds should emit charged particles to produce a lightning. But the real question is what makes the cloud to emit the charges.

How lightning initially forms is still a matter of debate: Scientists have studied root causes ranging from atmospheric perturbations (wind, humidity, friction, and atmospheric pressure) to the impact of solar wind and accumulation of charged solar particles. Ice inside a cloud is thought to be a key element in lightning development, and may cause a forcible separation of positive and negative charges within the cloud, thus assisting in the formation of lightning.
Wikipedia

Some may say that clouds of opposite charges collide to form a lightening. That is a good theory. But what makes the cloud to get ionised? Frankly I don't know the truth behind lightning. You can find a few theory and hypothesis. But nothing can give u conclusive evidence. It appears that we have really skipped an important aspect in electromagnetic. Typically a lightning reaches a temperature of about 30000º C which is more than 3 times the temperature of the sun's surface!!! Thunder is produced when lightning occurs. Some people try to calculate the distance based on the time period between lightning and thunder

But as far the research can go no one can give a conclusive fact with evidence on the real cause of the lightning and thunder. What science can answer is how Lightning starts and not how clouds get ionised and what the weather and geography has to do with it etc. Typically when a cloud reaches a mountain or hill station it is called fog. If they acquire charge then why aren't hill stations affected by this phenomenon? And at times lightning goes towards the earth? what makes it to gotowards earth? is the earth's surface charged??? And how does ice crystals get charged up automatically? Though science can explain them, they cant provide conclusive evidence on all aspects surrounding lightning and the loud thunder!!!

The fear of thunder is known as astraphobia