Explain how lightning occurs and three different types of lighting during
thunderstorms briefly.
Answers
It is an electrical discharge from cloud base to the ground.
Lightning occurs in a thundercloud (also called as cumulonimbus cloud) during thunderstorm. Usually, negative charge is accumulated at the base of cloud and the ground beneath it is positively charged (vice versa is possible but rare). Positive charge on the ground is more dense on the protruding objects like a tree, a tall building, or a person standing in an open field or plain.
In the news we hear that a person died because of the lightning. Generally such cases happen in an open field where that person is the tallest object in that particular area and most of the positive charge is accumulated on that person.
When the charge density reaches a critical value, a narrow beam of ions emerges from the cloud base and falls on the ground.