What is lightning?When your clothes rub together in the dryer, they create and store static electric charge. You may have seen and heard the tiny "lightning" flashes and crackling "thunder" come from your charged clothes when you pull them out.When raindrops and ice particles rub together in a thundercloud, they create and store a charge in the cloud. When the charge becomes too great for the cloud to hold, it suddenly discharges with a crackle and flash which we call thunder and lightning. You've seen lightning bolts, streamers of charge moving from the bottom of the cloud to earth. But you may not have seen the streamers which move the charge from the center of the cloud to the bottom. They are usually hidden in the cloud. However, they have been photographed and studied. Scientist call them "J"-streamers. They form a "junction" for the small pockets of charge scattered throughout the cloud. Like streams and rivers, they feed charge into the main strokes to ground. Some interesting lightning facts
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