Lightning strikes are loud and can easily be spotted. They are violent to the extent of shaking your bones and lighting up the sky. A new study proposes that these potent events can change the chemistry of Earth's atmosphere. And this could even affect Earth's crucial ozone layer.
(Photo : Pixabay)
Airport Lightning Risk Index
A meteorologist with Vaisala, Chris Vagasky, told AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell: Lightning heats up the atmosphere to hotter than the sun s surface and it packs thousands of times more electricity than the outlets on the wall that you would plug your phone or computer into.
A weather data measurement firm, Vaisala, has developed an Airport Lightning Risk Index that can compute how much every airport in the United States is affected by lightning. The index takes the number of departure and landings at an airport and multiplies that by the density of lightning in that region.
(Photo : Photo by Ron Rev Fenomeno from Pixabay )
To date, the world record for most number of times struck by lightning belongs to tragic park ranger Roy Sullivan who survived it a total of seven times before allegedly committing suicide in 1983.
As sad and strange his tale was, however, these crazy brushes with nature s wrath also teach a lot about how lightning really works. Here is a list of lesser known lessons you can learn from Sullivan s life.
Man versus lightning - the truth
#1. Lightning does not kill instantly.
Weirdly enough, you don t have to be a cartoon character to survive getting struck by lightning. (And no, it does not turn you into a pile of ash with just your animated eyeballs left either.) The truth is that a single bolt, while extremely dangerous, only electrocutes the human body for a split second.