The air around lightning can be five times hotter than the sun's surface

Dirty lightning is a thunderstorm created from friction between rising and falling flows of ash and smoke during volcanic eruptions.

Dirty lightning is a thunderstorm created from friction between rising and falling flows of ash and smoke during volcanic eruptions.

Watch lightning strike a building at 40,000 frames per second

When the built-up layer of negative charge at the bottom of clouds is sufficiently high, a network of charge filaments will emerge. If one of the filaments meets a rising strand of positively charged particles, a highly conductive path forms, and charges across all filaments move to the path, generating lightning

Being near a lightning strike—even without getting struck—can be fatal

Because animal tissue is generally more conductive than soil, electricity moving along Earth's surface after a strike tends to travel up and back down an animal's legs, discharging dangerous amounts of energy along the way, with risks increasing the farther apart the legs are. This ground current accounts for about half of all lightning-related deaths and injuries in humans.

The sound of thunder can vary based on your distance from lightning

The rapid flow of electricity heats and pressurizes air, causing it to expand and produce a shockwave at each point along the bolt at multiple frequencies. As these shockwaves overlap, higher-frequency sounds, which produce a sudden crack, dissipate more quickly, while lower-frequency sounds—long booms and rumbles—travel farther.

Lightning bolts are about as thick as a garden hose

The conductive filament ranges from about 2.5 to 5.0 centimeters (1 to 2 inches), though its extreme brightness makes it appear much thicker and visible from miles away. Scars on individuals who suffer a direct strike produce Lichtenberg figures with similar maximum thickness.

Every day, lightning releases several Hiroshima bombs' worth of energy into the atmosphere

If all this lightning struck one location at once, the bolt would be the diameter of the center circle of a basketball court, turning the entire court into a crater. Its heat would ignite surfaces for miles around, and its shockwave would demolish buildings.

The unpredictability and brevity of lightning make lightning power impractical

While a typical lightning strike provides 30,000 amps at 300 million volts, the bolt only lasts about 30 microseconds. If the electrical surge could be captured—assuming one knew beforehand where it would strike—it would only provide enough electricity to power one home for about 6.4 hours.

Lightning may kill as many as 320 million trees each year

Ignoring the effects of tree loss resulting from lightning-induced wildfires, researchers at the Technical University of Munich developed a quantitative model to estimate the loss of these organisms due to cloud-to-ground strikes, based on global lightning data and forest structure. They expect the estimate to rise due to increased strikes resulting from climate change.

Electrical discharge from stressed rocks may produce lightning

Although flashes of light in the sky likely result from storms or damaged transformers and power lines coinciding with geological events, some scientists theorize that fracto-luminescence, or earthquake lights, may be caused by discharged built-up static electricity.

Lightning results from the rapid flow of charges through the atmosphere

Lightning in storm clouds forms from the collisions between graupel—small hail particles—and smaller ice particles, which transfer electrons. Layers of opposing charges form as these differently sized particles rise and fall. When air can no longer insulate these layers, electricity discharges, equalizing these regions.

Lightning storms are more common in coastal and tropical regions

Water-abundant areas that receive increased solar radiation, such as those near the equator, experience increased rates of evaporation, which produce tall clouds as moisture rises, cools, and condenses. Mountain ranges can also steer air to higher altitudes, creating collisions between atmospheric particles that generate charge imbalances—the precursors to lightning.

As of 2025, the longest lightning bolt in the world spanned several states

Although the average bolt measures less than 16 kilometers (10 miles), the 2017 "megaflash" spanned 829 kilometers (515 miles) from eastern Texas to Missouri. Severe thunderstorms are common in the region, where warm, humid air from the Gulf collides with cool, dry air from the north, generating atmospheric instability.

Atmospheric composition and temperature impact the color of lightning

Just as fire ranges from red to blue with increasing temperature, lightning's blueish-white comes from the superheating of air. The emission of light from the predominantly nitrogen- and oxygen-rich atmosphere produces a purple tint, with additional color caused by light scattering from humidity, hail, dust, and ash.

Thermal runaway reactions can cause batteries to catch fire or explode

If a lithium-ion battery is heated, punctured, crushed, or short-circuits due to manufacturing flaws or degradation, the cathode and anode can make contact without the resistance provided by a circuit. The ensuing spike in chemical reactions increases the temperature and can release oxygen, initiating and intensifying burning of the battery's interior.

Understanding why the thermosphere feels cold, despite exceeding 2,000 degrees Celsius

High-energy solar radiation can raise temperatures above 2,000 degrees Celsius (3,632 degrees Fahrenheit), but the air density in this layer is so low that there would be insufficient collisions between energized molecules and a person's skin to cause them to experience this warmth. Variations in the level of solar radiation reaching the layer cause it to swell and shrink.

Fireworks make a loud booming sound after exploding due to air expanding faster than the speed of sound.

Hail forms in freezing temperatures thousands of feet above the ground

Even if surface temperatures are well above freezing during the summer, updrafts during thunderstorms can push raindrops high into the atmosphere, where they can freeze and form hail. Giant hailstones the size of softballs require updrafts of close to 100 mph.

The first known instance of a fire tornado occurred in 2003

During pyro-tornadogenesis, many processes that create thunderstorms from wildfires, such as rising hot air and steam from evaporated water in forests, fuel the formation of a fire tornado. The increasing rates of wildfires due to climate change are expected to make this phenomenon and other extreme weather more common.

The deadliest aspect of volcanic eruptions is often not lava, but pyroclastic flows—avalanches of ash, gas, and rock that can move more than half the speed of sound.

The speed of electricity may refer to the movement of electrons or energy

In the 18th century, various experiments, including one in which monks holding an iron wire were shocked, suggested that electricity traveled at infinite speed. Advancements in technology, recognizing that electric currents were moving electrons, and the development of the theory of electromagnetism showed that electric signals can travel at near light speed, despite electrons moving much slower.

The sun emits a continuous stream of plasma known as the solar wind

Composed of charged particles—electrons and ions—the solar wind is deflected around the Earth by the planet's magnetic field. More powerful solar storms, known as coronal mass ejections, are short-lived but produce huge clouds of plasma that disrupt technology upon reaching Earth.

Will-o'-the-wisps may be the result of microlightning between bubbles

Methane and air bubbles moving through water can generate small sparks between them, which can ignite gas. The above-ground phenomenon may have historically been the result of passing travelers igniting swamp gas with their lanterns. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

Light energy can be transformed into electricity in solar cells via the photovoltaic effect

When light strikes semiconducting material, it can knock electrons out of atoms, creating a charge imbalance within the material. A wire connecting the oppositely charged regions can allow electrons to flow back, balancing the charges and producing an electric current that can be harnessed to power devices.

Heatstroke occurs when the body reaches 104°F or higher and can't cool itself

Untreated, this medical emergency can result in permanent disability or death. Someone suffering from heatstroke—defined as a core temperature of 104 degrees Fahrenheit but sometimes as high as 106 degrees Fahrenheit—may appear confused and require immediate cooling, ideally with an ice bath.

Learn how your body is, scientifically, like a firework with its own slow, controlled burn

This NPR video makes clear that there are surprising similarities between how our bodies and fireworks function. Fireworks and our bodies are both packed with carbon atoms, and have controlled releases of energy that create heat—keeping the human body warm or fueling fireworks' heat, respectively. What's more, the human body even emits a tiny bit of light somewhat similar to fireworks—though it's not visible to the human eye.

Stars appear to twinkle because turbulence in the motion of molecules in Earth's atmosphere causes light to bend and wiggle rapidly on its way to the surface—a phenomenon called scintillation.

Cathode-ray tube televisions are examples of electron accelerators

CRT TVs work by converting electricity into heat, which causes electrons to be emitted from the rear of the device in three beams responsible for the colors red, green, and blue. Electromagnets direct electrons to phosphor molecules on the screen, which emit light and illuminate the pixels.

A Death Valley shrub optimizes its cells' organelles to photosynthesize in extreme heat

Examining the cellular structure of the plant under heat, scientists observed the formation of novel, cup-shaped chloroplasts and mitochondrial relocation, which shifted the plant's optimal photosynthesis temperature to 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) as it tripled in mass over 10 days. Engineering these mechanisms in crops may help optimize them for hotter environments.

The boiling temperature of water decreases with increasing elevation because the molecules need less energy to overcome the lower atmospheric pressure associated with thinner air.

Scientists testing how climate change affects plants found, in a years-long simulation study, that poison ivy grew 70% faster with the resulting extra carbon dioxide.

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Pure water does not conduct electricity because this flow of energy requires the movement of charged particles, and water is a neutral molecule.

Before writing 'Walden,' transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with a campfire that grew out of control.

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For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

How fusion—which releases energy when two lighter atoms combine to form a heavier atom—differs from fission

View the ten deadliest tornadoes in US history.

Ebola is a filovirus, meaning it resembles a thread under a microscope, though it sometimes twists and can resemble a bowl of spaghetti.

Hurricanes, which rely on air consistently spinning in the same direction, cannot cross the equator because air curves in opposite directions north and south of it.

Power lines are dotted with large, brightly colored balls to improve the visibility of these thin wires to helicopters and small planes and help prevent potential crashes.

Radioactive elements can introduce software errors because the ionizing radiation they produce can detach electrons from atoms, and computer code relies on the distribution of electrons.

When caught in the mouths of cardinal fish, seed shrimp release glowing, bioluminescent chemicals, which alert predators of the cardinal fish, prompting the shrimp's ejection.

El Niño, Spanish for 'the boy,' was named after Jesus Christ because the phenomenon resembled the weather changes observed around Christmastime.

Some Pokémon have been named after real and fictional organisms, while some real-world species have been named after Pokémon, such as Chilicola charizard and Binburrum zapdos.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

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