how does lightening and thunder occur?

Question

how does it happen what makes it happen

Answer 1

"The sky is filled with electric charge. In a calm sky, the + and - charges are evenly interspersed thoughout the atmosphere. Therefore, a calm sky has a neutral charge.

Inside a thunderstorm, electric charge is spread out differently. A thunderstorm consists of ice crystals and hailstones. The ice crystals have a + charge, while the hailstones have a - charge. The ice crystals are pushed to the top of the thunderstorm cloud by an updraft. Meanwhile, the hailstones are pushed to the bottom of the thunderstorm by its downdraft. Thus, the thunderstorm's + and - charges are separated into two levels: the + charge at the top and the - charge at the bottom.

During a thunderstorm, the Earth's surface has a + charge. Because opposites attract, the - charge at the bottom of the thunder cloud wants to link up with the + charge of the Earth's surface.

Once the - charge at the bottom of the cloud gets large enough to overcome air resistance, a flow of - charge rushes toward the earth. This is known as a stepped leader. The + charges of the Earth are attracted to this stepped leader, so a flow of + charge moves into the air. When the stepped leader and the + charge from the earth meet, a strong electric current carries + charge up into the cloud. This electric current is known as the return stroke of lightning and is visible to the human eye. "

http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/Atmosphere/tstorm/lightning.html

Answer 2

Lightning is basically a giant spark of static electricity that originates in storm clouds (specifically cumulonimbus clouds.)

It works like this, in storm clouds there are ionized particles of different charges. These ions occur naturally and can be either positive or negative.

When there is a lot of atmospheric instability at high altitudes, these particles form at a greater than normal rate. The positive ions are light, and float to the top of the cloud. The negative ions get heavier and sink to the bottom. This forms an electrical charge called a "leader."

As the clouds drift over the ground below, their negative charge starts pulling on any positive charge in the ground (the ground charge is called a "streamer.") If the charge gets strong enough, the leader will meet the streamer and the electrical circuit will be complete. A thing happens called a "return stroke" This is your lightning bolt. The return stroke can pack up to 1 billion volts of electricity and can heat up to over 50,000 degrees farenheit.

The superheated air around the return stroke expands explosively, creating a shock wave that we hear as thunder.

Thunder and lightning occur at the same time, but since light travels faster than sound you will usually see the lightning flash before you hear the thunder roll. If the flash and sound are very close together, get your butt inside because you are in danger of being on the path of the next return stroke. Not a healthy thing.

- Cai

Answer 3

Static discharge from the earths crust. Thunder is the shock wave created by the lightning.

When you have positive charged ground and negative charged particles in the atmosphere. The lightning bolt generally comes from the ground to the particles in the atmosphere. Some people believe that lightning strikes the ground, but it is the other way around.

Answer 4

How Lightning is Created
The conditions needed to produce lightning have been known for some time. However, exactly how lightning forms has never been verified so there is room for debate. Leading theories focus around separation of electric charge and generation of an electric field within a thunderstorm. Recent studies also indicate that ice, hail, and semi-frozen water drops known as graupel are essential to lightning development. Storms that fail to produce large quantities of ice usually fail to produce lightning.

Forecasting when and where lightning will strike is not yet possible and most likely never will be. But by educating yourself about lightning and learning some basic safety rules, you, your family, and your friends can avoid needless exposure to the dangers of one of the most capricious and unpredictable forces of nature.

Charge Separation
Seperated charges in a thunderstormThunderstorms have very turbulent environments. Strong updrafts and downdrafts occur with regularity and within close proximity to each other. The updrafts transport small liquid water droplets from the lower regions of the storm to heights between 35,000 and 70,000 feet, miles above the freezing level.

Meanwhile, downdrafts transport hail and ice from the frozen upper regions of the storm. When these collide, the water droplets freeze and release heat. This heat in turn keeps the surface of the hail and ice slightly warmer than its surrounding environment, and a "soft hail", or "graupel" forms.

When this graupel collides with additional water droplets and ice particles, a critical phenomenon occurs: Electrons are sheared off of the ascending particles and collect on the descending particles. Because electrons carry a negative charge, the result is a storm cloud with a negatively charged base and a positively charged top.

Field Generation
The electric field within a thunderstormIn the world of electricity, opposites attract and insulators inhibit. As the charges separate within the cloud, an electric field is generated between its top and base. The greater the magnitude of separation, the stronger the field, and the stronger the attraction between the charges.

However, the atmosphere is a very good insulator that inhibits electric flow, so a TREMENDOUS amount of charge has to build up before lightning can occur. When that charge threshold is reached, the strength of the electric field overpowers the atmosphere's insulating properties, and lightning results.

The electric field within the storm is not the only one that develops. Below the negatively charged storm base, positive charge begins to pool within the surface of the earth. This positive charge will shadow the storm wherever it goes, and is responsible for cloud-to-ground lightning. However, the electric field within the storm is much stronger than the one between the storm base and the earth's surface, so most lightning (~75-80%) occurs within the storm cloud itself.

How Lightning Develops Between The Cloud And The Ground
A moving thunderstorm gathers another pool of positively charged particles along the ground that travel with the storm . As the differences in charges continue to increase, positively charged particles rise up taller objects such as trees, houses, and telephone poles.
Thunderstorm gathers another pool of positively charged particles Negatively charged area in the storm will send out a charge Lightning channel develops
A channel of negative charge, called a "stepped leader" will descend from the bottom of the storm toward the ground (. It is invisible to the human eye, and shoots to the ground in a series of rapid steps, each occurring in less time than it takes to blink your eye. As the negative leader approaches the ground, positive charge collects in the ground and in objects on the ground.

This positive charge "reaches" out to the approaching negative charge with its own channel, called a "streamer" . When these channels connect, the resulting electrical transfer is what we see as lightning. After the initial lightning stroke, if enough charge is leftover, additional lightning strokes will use the same channel and will give the bolt its flickering appearance.


Tall objects such as trees and skyscrapers are commonly struck by lightning. Mountains also make good targets. The reason for this is their tops are closer to the base of the storm cloud. Remember, the atmosphere is a good electrical insulator. The less insulation the lightning has to burn through, the easier it is for it to strike. However, this does not always mean tall objects will be struck. It all depends on where the even if the tree line is close by.


Thunder is, even today, not completely understood but modern science usually describes it is a sonic shock wave caused by the rapid heating and expansion of the air surrounding and possibly within a bolt of lightning. The bolt changes the air into plasma and it instantly explodes causing the sound known as a thunder clap.

This phenomenon occurs at the same time (lightning strike/air expansion thunderclap), but we hear thunder after we see lightning because light travels faster (186,000 miles / 299,338 kilometers per second) than sound (around 700 miles / 1,126 kilometers per hour but varies depending on altitude, humidity and air pressure.) At a close enough distance to the lighting strike point, sound and light can be heard and seen simultaneously.

Answer 5

No, it comes from outher space. Charged particals fly through space from stars or other things. they always come throught our atmosphere. some times if the air is charged, from friction created in wind, they react causing lightning.

Answer 6

due to electrical charge build up in clouds