by MJ Logan

Created on: November 11, 2008

Lightning is an electrical discharge between two clouds, or between a cloud and the earth. Clouds that produce lightning are thunderclouds.

Droplets of water or particles of ice in clouds rub together, causing electrons to be stripped from the water molecules and producing particles with an electrical charge. Positively charged particles form at the top of the cloud and negatively charged particles form at the bottom of the cloud.

On the ground, the attraction between the negative charges in the cloud and the positive charges on the earth cause the earthbound charges to congregate in a specific place. They migrate to the point closest to the negative charges in the cloud, due to the attraction. This means they will gather in the highest point available to them.

Once the difference in potential between the ground based positive charges and the cloud based negative charges becomes great enough to bridge the gap between them, the cloud discharges the lightning bolt. The negative charges travel up through the cloud to the top and discharge down to the positive charges on the ground.

The resulting lightning strike has incredible power. The temperature within the bolt reaches fifty to fifty four thousand degrees, six times hotter than the sun. Lightning rips trees asunder and sets them on fire, it destroys the rooftops of houses or in the worst case scenario, hits a person and badly injures or kills them.

To minimize damage to homes and other structures, we place lightning conductors on the rooftops of homes, barns, buildings, and towers. A path to the earth through a cable and a buried plate provides a way for the discharge to travel safely to the ground without causing damage.

Lightning conductors, more often called lightning rods or by their inventor's name, Franklin rods, save lives and property by rerouting the electrical charge from the lightning strike into the earth. The positive charges on the earth gather on the lightning rod and receive the strike from the cloud above.

Interestingly, the massive electrical charge travels mostly through the outside surface of the rod and cable to the earth, not the inside. The surface of the rod and cable carries the charge, not the inside.

If you are outdoors during a thunderstorm and feel your hair stand on end or your skin tingle, chances are high the positive charges are gathering on you. If you cannot seek cover within a few seconds, curl up in ball and stay that way, for lightning is about to strike you. Curling up in a ball minimizes your height and provides the smallest target for the lightning to hit. Do not lie flat as this maximizes your target size.

The last thing you want to be is a lightning conductor or a part of one. Stay away from lone trees, do not stand upright or hold onto anything taller than you. Lightning doesn't care where it hits, it just wants the easiest path to the earth.

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