Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Lightning Info

How many volts and amps are in a lightning strike?
  • A typical lightning bolt contains 1 billion volts and contains between 10,000 to 200,000 amperes of current. The average flash would light a 100 watt lightbulb for 3 months.
  • The amperage of a typical thunderstorm may vary from 10,000 to 200,000 amps. The power generated by one thunderstorm may be in the neighborhood of several hundred megawatts.

“If only we could harness this energy...”

How long does a lightning strike last?
  • Only about 30 microseconds

Where is the most common place for a lightning strike to occur?
  • When dealing with lightning it is hard to get a very specific area that is affected more than another by lightning storms, but here is a graph that shows the Global frequency and distribution of lightning as observed from space by the Optical Transient Detector.


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