eli5: How does lightning form?
In: Physics
You know how when you wear socks and walk on carpet, you can sometimes get a small shock when you touch a doorknob? Or when you go down a plastic slide when you were a kid, and your hair stood up and you heard a crackling? It’s the exact same thing, just on a larger scale
When currents of moist air move against each other, electrons can be taken from one layer and stored in another due to the friction of all the molecules moving against each other. That charge difference builds and builds and builds until it is able to find a path down to ground or between layers of the clouds.
The lightning is just the path of ionized air heated up by the electrons jumping to an area to equalize the charge.
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