ightning over Connaught Place area on July 6, 2012 in New Delhi, India. Delhiites heaved a sigh of relief today as pre-monsoon showers lashed several parts of the city and brought down the mercury. Hindustan Times/Newscom. Find it on Newscom.com: htphotos010607
Do any of these sound familiar?
- It was a dark and stormy night…
- A flash of lightning lit his face, exposing his scar…
- The helpless female approaches a broken down house. Lightning flashes, a door creaks open, and creepy music begins to play.
In nearly every horror story, lightning plays a key part in identifying a night when a stranger will show up, who the bad guy is, and which houses are haunted. Authors and screen writers alike know that we as humans have a certain, let’s say, uneasiness, about lightning that they like to play off of. Since it has been such a tried and true symbol, lightning can almost always serve to bring the chills and have you reaching for the closest hand.
Lightning is something that many people fear irrationally. All we hear about are the horror stories which undermines the beauty that lightning can create. True, I wouldn’t want to be on top of a mountain during a lightning storm, but I’ve never really felt afraid of dying from it or having my house burn down. But even when I’m safely watching from inside a house, my adrenaline will start pumping and “fight or flight” is telling me to run away, while logic is saying to hide under my sheets, and adventure is telling me to watch and appreciate the pure power streaming down.
Lightning is created when there is an unbalanced electrical charge in the earth’s atmosphere. There are three ways for lightning to travel- cloud to cloud, inside the cloud, and cloud to ground. Lightning is always accompanied by thunder, but because the speed of sound is so much slower than the speed of light, thunder isn’t heard until seconds afterwards. It is also common to see lightning during fires, volcanic eruptions, snow storms, dust storms and tornadoes. This is because these differing natural storms kick up particles into the air. Those particles have all different electrical charges and change the conditions inside clouds and the surrounding air. Again, lightning is created when there’s an unbalanced electrical charge.
Check out these 15 of the coolest pictures of lightning that Newscom has to offer, then head back to our site to find more cool pictures of lightning that I’ve compiled. Appreciate the perfect timing these photographers had to have. Their response time had to be as fast as, well, lightning.
Cactus silhouetted against lightning, Tucson, Arizona, United States of America (U.S.A.), North America. Tony Gervis/Robert Harding/Newscom. Find it on Newscom.com: rhphotos116735
GNARLED TREE SILHOUETTE WITH BRANCHES LIKE ARMS, STORMY CLOUDS AND lightning. Dan Barba Stock Connection USA/Newscom. Find it on Newscom.com: scusphotos078386
Lightning illuminates the night sky and strikes two buildings over South Beach, Miami in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The colourful display is a familiar sight in Florida during the Summer, especially a few hundred miles north in the city of Tampa, which is widely considered the lightning capital of the world.. MaxButterworth/ Splash News/Newscom. Find it on Newscom.com: spnphotostwo979776
France, Alsace, Steeple, low angle view. Anja Weber-Decker/Westend61/Newscom. Find it on Newscom.com: westendrm009837
The Historic Wartburg At Eisenach. picturescolourlibrary.com Stock Connection USA/Newscom. Find it on Newscom.com: scusphotos068335
Novastock Stock Connection/Newscom. Find it on Newscom.com: scsubpic000846
Lightning bolt and storm over Paris at night with Eiffel Tower and Palais de Chaillot fountains. Chad Ehlers Stock Connection Worldwide/Newscom. Find it on Newscom.com: scphotos102579
Bolts of lightning during a storm over Tucson, Arizona. Ralph Wetmore Stock Connection Worldwide/Newscom. Find it on Newscom.com: scphotos034743
Lightning streaks across the bright night sky behind Central Presbyterian church and downtown buildings, Denver, Colorado. Kimball Andrew Schmidt Stock Connection Worldwide/Newscom. Find it on Newscom.com: scphotos017232
Electrical storm with forked lightning over the Grapevine mountains of the Amargosa Range, Mesquite Flats Sand dunes in the valley, Stovepipe Wells, Death Valley National Park, California, United States of America, North America. Neale Clarke/Robert Harding/Newscom. Find it on Newscom.com: rhphotos149932
Female mountain bikers during a thunderstorm, lightning in the background, Dolomites, Northern Italy, Europe. Joerg Reuther Image Broker/Newscom. Find it on Newscom.com: ibpremium033834
Lightning strikes behind an American Flag during a fast moving thunderstorm passing through Lexington Massachusetts, USA. CJ GUNTHER/EPA/Newscom. Find it on Newscom.com: epaphotosfour469552
A thunder storm and lightning passes over the village of Bardovci near Skopje, Macedonia. GEORGI LICOVSKI/EPA/Newscom. Find it on Newscom.com: epaphotosfour469313
Lightening storm over homes. Richard Wear / Design Pics/Newscom. Find it on Newscom.com: depphotos058939
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