Lightning

High school (ages 12+)
Environment & Earth

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/lightning

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the scientific discipline?Fulminology
2. What is the energy range?Averages between 200 megajoules and 7 gigajoules
3. How does lightning start inside a thunderstorm?Inside a thunderstorm, ice crystals and water droplets bump into each other and give the cloud a positive charge at the top and a negative charge at the bottom. When the electric field gets strong enough, a tiny invisible spark called a stepped leader begins to move downwards.
4. Why do we hear thunder after a lightning flash?The lightning heats the air to about 30,000 °C very quickly, making the air expand fast. This sudden expansion creates a shockwave that we hear as thunder.

Electrostatic Discharge: The rapid release of electrical energy between oppositely charged regions.
Charge Separation: The process within clouds that segregates positive and negative electrical charges.
Stepped Leader: The initial, faint, downward-moving channel of ionized air that precedes a lightning strike.
Return Stroke: The powerful, visible surge of electrical current that travels upward along the ionized channel during a lightning strike.