Air-mass Thunderstorm - Lightning

Lightning

See also: Lightning

Relationships between lightning frequency and the height of precipitation within thunderstorms have been found. Thunderstorms which show radar returns above 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) in height are associated with storms which have more than ten lightning flashes per minute. There is also a correlation between the total lightning rate and the size of the thunderstorm, its updraft velocity, and amount of graupel over land. The same relationships fail over tropical oceans, however. Lightning from low precipitation (LP) thunderstorms is one of the leading causes of wildfires.

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Famous quotes containing the word lightning:

    “Swift as a shadow, short as any dream,
    Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
    That in a spleen unfolds both heaven and earth,
    And, ere a man hath power to say “Behold!”
    The jaws of darkness do devour it up.
    So quick bright things come to confusion.”
    —William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    “The Lightning showed a Yellow Beak
    And then a livid Claw.”
    —Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)

    “The lightning flashes through my skull; mine eyeballs ache and ache; my whole beaten brain seems as beheaded, and rolling on some stunning ground.”
    —Herman Melville (1819–1891)