When lightning hits an aircraft, it arcs through the fuselage, from the wings and nose, and exits through the tail. All wires onboard are grounded or isolated away from the body, and the electric current passes through the conductive outer shell of the aircraft. The only thing you should hear is a boom and perhaps a light shake.
When the lightning hits the ground, it causes a trail of plasma that lights the sky with those telltale zigzags of blueish white light that we see as lightning. Lichtenberg figures are a type of scarring that can occur when you’ve been struck by lightning.
When lightning strikes a vehicle, it will hit your car antenna or the outer metal shell in most cases. The lightning will then travel through the outer shell and pass through to the car’s rubber tires into the ground. You need to note that every lightning strike is different, so the amount of damage that your vehicle will suffer varies.
Some articles claimed utility poles, wires, transformers and other electrical equipment are easy targets for lightning strikes, causing severe damage and loss of power. Lightning also frequently strikes trees causing tree limbs or even large trees to fall onto utility lines.
You should be asking “When lightning struck the outhouse?”
This stellar and venerable example paints a picture, tells a tale, and cracks a joke, all in twelve words. He looks like he was in the outhouse when the lightning struck. She’s so ugly she’d make a freight train take a dirt road.
How lightning causes power outages?
Lightning is responsible for many power outages. If the lights go out in the middle of a thunderstorm, lightning is probably the culprit. Bolts can strike the tall poles that support power lines, damaging the lines and/or other equipment on the poles (fuses, transformers, relays), which interrupts the flow of electricity.
Power outages can be caused by many circumstances. Storms, accompanied by heavy wind and lightning, are major causes of power outages. However, people and animals can also cause the power to go out. Lightning looks for the quickest path to the ground.
The weight of the snow and ice can cause wires to break. Tree limbs also become heavy with snow and ice causing them to break and fall into power lines. Heavy rain and melting snow can cause flooding in some areas. Flooding can damage both overhead and underground electrical equipment.
Wind may cause power lines to swing together resulting in a fault or short circuit that interrupts service. Strong wind can blow tree limbs or entire trees into power lines causing them to fall to the ground. Severe winds can even break power lines and utility poles, bringing down extensive portions of the infrastructure that delivers power.
Why does lightning always appear to be flickering?
That is the reason why lightning always appears to be flickering. In short, it would be fair to say that lightning travels both ways. Don’t forget that lightning looks for the path of least resistance, so anything on the ground, such as tall buildings, towers, trees, or even humans may provide that path of least resistance for a strike.
Also, what is the shape of lightning?
If you have seen lightning, in reality or in movies, you would have observed that its shape is zig-zag. Have you ever wondered why lightning is not a straight line?
Air is uneven and irregular, which is why when lightning is formed (due to the potential difference of the charges ), it makes sure that the path it chooses is clear, or has the least possible resistance. The path it chooses doesn’t have to be a straight line (remember, a straight line means ‘the least distance’ and not ‘the least resistance’).
Why does Lightning travel in both directions?
This is another question about lightning that seems to confound many people, so just to clarify, lightning actually travels in both directions. The positively charged particles from the ground begin to move upwards through the air to meet the negatively-charged particles that are racing down from the bottom of the clouds.
Why is lightning zigzag?
There are fluctuations in temperature, humidity, pollutants, dust particles, etc. in the air, and so the resistance varies. As a result, lightning strikes are often observed in a zigzag pattern.