Can lightning form in fog?

Question

I'm pretty sure I saw it happen. Or maybe a transformer exploded in the fog??? just saw a bright flash and boom!

I am talking about a clear sky up above with the only clouds being on the ground.

Answer 1

Lightning forms in cumulonimbus cloud (Cb). The conditions for the formation of Cb are very different from those for the formation of fog so normally you would not see fog and a thunderstorm together.

Fog that is really low cloud on mountains is different from fog that forms on clear mornings. If moist air rises over mountains, you can get the appearance of fog on the mountain but it looks like low cloud from below. If the air continues to rise, a Cb cloud could develop and for someone on the mountain there could be fog and lightning at the same time.

In general the two cannot occur together but in the special circumstances I have outlined, it would be possible.

Answer 2

If fog were the only type of cloud at your location, then no, lightning cannot form purely in fog. If fog is present below a cloud capable of producing lightning, the lightning can travel though the fog, creating a fairly spectacular light show.

A little more lightning info:

While lightning is one of the least understood weather phenomena, we do know many of the mechanisms that produce it. Colliding ice particles in a cloud updraft are thought to generate most of the charge that produces lightning, although this method does not fully explain the energy found in lightning.

This also explains why lightning cannot form in fog. The mechanism the generate the charge in lightning does not exist in fog.

Answer 3

extraordinary question! In theory, lightning and thunderstorms ensue whilst the air is moist and heat under, and intensely chilly above. that occurs often for the duration of the passing of a chilly front: The air is at as quickly as lifted and not in any respect includes a fair adiabatic cooling with the encompassing air because of low adiabatic lapse fee of the moist air. So, you will see thunderstorms linked with the best visibility that follows a chilly front. yet, in coastal aspects, issues could properly be somewhat different. you will have an incredibly heat land and a incredibly cool water. that could create an inversion in the decrease layer of the ambience and additionally you would be able to then adventure thunderstorms and fog on the comparable time. I even have sailed all my life and it befell to me two times, in my little sailboat. the 1st time, it became on the Raz de Sein; the western nook of France. This became frightening stuff considering it truly is in all danger the main threatening waterway of the full French coast. Very good tidal flow makes which you would be able to purely sail it at a definite time of the day. i became there, which incorporate different yachts i ought to pay attention on the radio yet observed no longer something ... in the fog and thunderstorm. the different time became exterior the north-west coast of Spain, close to l. a. Coruña. And that element, it became for the duration of the nighttime! i became by myself on board, caught between a unfavorable coast and the transport lane, i could no longer look for shelter in a harbour of that coast it truly is named l. a. Costa de l. a. Muerte (demise's coast) because of the fact it incredibly is the two fog or gale winds, there. The very extraordinary ingredient became that, because of fog, i could no longer see the lights bolt; purely a surprising ligthning of the full sky, then dark lower back. ... besides, lightning can ensue in fog. I even have skilled it. in spite of if it incredibly isn't any longer very popular. the clarification in the back of the fog in Galicia, the north-west nook of Spain, is that the chilly water from the north meets the incredibly intense and heat Iberian peninsula.

Answer 4

Absolutely, fog just adds to the show

Answer 5

yes

Answer 6

why not?