Courtesy of the National Severe Storms LaboratoryĬloud to Air strikes happen when the bolt of lightning reaches out into clear air next to the cloud to zap some charged particles that are invisible to the human eye. They usually look like bright sheets of flashing light since the lightning bolt is happening inside the cloud instead of on the outside. Intra-Cloud lightning is just cloud-to-cloud lightning where the bolts are hidden from view. Charges around the cloud and near the ground start organizing themselves too.Ĭourtesy of the National Severe Storms Laboratory Inside a storm cloud, they tend to stack up like an oreo cookie, with like charges organizing themselves into layers.Īs charges build up in the cloud it causes something neat to happen. Positive and negatively charged particles are floating all around us. Lightning will go where the charged particles are. This means lightning does not have to strike an object. ZAP! Once it hits these particles, they are neutralized, which makes the cloud happier. A single bolt will strike through the sky looking for charged particles. Over time, so many charged particles start popping up that the cloud can’t take it anymore! That’s when a lightning bolt is formed. Thunderstorms are great at creating charged particles and packing a bunch into a single storm cloud. The whole reason we have lightning is due to invisible charged particles in the sky. We usually think of a bolt of lightning needing to “hit” something, but that’s not always the case. Emery wants to know, “How does lightning strike between clouds without touching the ground?” (WOOD) - This is another great kid question and it has to do with lightning.
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