More lightning facts
Randy Mann.
JAKE PARRISH/Press
Conditions across the Inland Northwest are expected to dry with warm afternoon temperatures this week. However, May is one of the months we will experience thunderstorm activity with lightning. Despite great progress in its understanding and behavior, lightning is still one of the more mysterious natural phenomena.
As I’ve mentioned in previous articles, there are approximately 3 to 8 million lightning flashes across the globe. They can seem quite large when viewing from a distance, but the width of a typical bolt is about an inch. The length can stretch for up to 2-10 miles and the typical duration of a lightning flash is about one-fifth of a second. The typical bolt of lightning is about 40,000 to 50,000 degrees and is about four to five times hotter than the surface of the sun.
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