How does lightning form?

As I went  to pick P & P from the school bus stop I noticed that the sky had turned dark with clouds hiding the Sun behind them. Soon, we could see lightning flashes with loud thunder sounds. The kids got little worried about what was happening.

So, I sat with them to explain how does lightning form and why it forms. As I explained it to them they seemed relieved and went about playing with their toys and reading books to keep them busy. 

How does lightning form?

When Sun heats up the air, the warm air rises. As the air rises water vapour  cools and forms clouds. As more air rise the cloud starts to grow bigger and bigger. In the top of the clouds the temperature is below freezing and water vapour turns into ice. Now the cloud becomes a thundercloud.

When lots of ice come together they start to bump into each other. All these collisions cause lot of electric charge.The whole cloud is with lot of electric charge. The lighter positively charge come together  on the top and the heavier negative charge pile up on the bottom.When both positive and negative charges grow bigger they form a giant spark. This is like a static electricity with sparks, but they are bigger in size.

A group up of positive charge builds up beneath the surface of the cloud due to the attraction of the negative charge on the bottom of the cloud. The grounds positive charge piles up on top of the trees, lightning conductors which when reacts with the negative charge on the clouds causes sparks of lightning.

This video shows how the lightning occurs in a very slow motion. Enjoy have a lightning weekend!

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