We are Journalism: Environment- Lightning

First of all, I would like to share a video of lightning that I took last month in the middle of night. This is a very special phenomenon for me. It happens around 1 a.m. in the middle of night, I was about to sleep, but suddenly I saw something shining outside my window, so I went out the living room and look out the window tried to find out what is going on. Then I saw lightning, but without thunder, without any sound but just lightning. It took so long, about one hour. And this seems unusual because the lightning took so long and it was very bright even brighter than what you can see in the video but the lightning without thundering. Lightning is also one of the environments in our life. In this article, I would like to share some knowledge about lighting and how dangerous lightning to human being.

Lightning is one of the most beautiful displays in nature. It is also one of the most deadly natural phenomena known to man. Lightning is an atmospheric electrostatic discharge (spark) accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms.

From this discharge of atmospheric electricity, a leader of a bolt of lightning can travel at speeds of 220,000 km/h (140,000 mph), and can reach temperatures approaching 30,000 °C (54,000 °F), hot enough to fuse silica sand into glass channels known as fulgurites, which are normally hollow and can extend some distance into the ground.

There are some 16 million lightning storms in the world every year. Lightning causes ionisation in the air through which it travels, leading to the formation of nitric oxide and ultimately, nitric acid, of benefit to plant life below. Lightning is not only spectacular, it’s dangerous. About 2,000 people are killed worldwide by lightning each year. Hundreds more survive strikes but suffer from a variety of lasting symptoms, including memory loss, dizziness, weakness, numbness, and other life-altering ailments.

Those are some examples which lightning happening in all around the world.

Lightning strikes the Eiffel Tower, France in 1902.