Lightning Facts

• The Temperature of lightning's return stroke can reach 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The surface of the sun is not even that hot! (around 11,000 degrees Fahrenheit)


• Average Lightning Stroke is 6 miles long


• Average Thunderstorm is 6-10 miles wide


• Average Thunderstorm travels at a rate of 25 miles per hour


• A typical lightning flash lasts about a quarter of a second and consists of 3 or 4 individual discharges called strokes


• Lightning strikes somewhere on the surface of the earth about 100 times every second


• On average, thunder can only be heard over a distance of 3-4 miles, depending on humidity, terrain and other factors


• The science of lightning is termed fulminology and a person studying it, a fulminologist


• Once the leading edge of a thunderstorm approaches to within 10 miles, you are at immediate risk due to the possibility of lightning strokes coming from overhanging anvil cloud. Because of this, many lightning deaths and injuries occur with clear skies directly overhead


• Singapore has one of the highest rates of lightning activity in the world


• Lightning often strikes outside of heavy rain and may occur as far as 10 miles away from any rainfall. So, It is not true that no rain, no danger from Lightning


• Its also fiction that Lightning never strikes the same place twice. Lightning has "favorite" sites that it may hit many times during one storm


• Approximately 100,000 thunderstorms occur in the United States each year. Approximately 10% of all thunderstorms are severe enough to produce high winds, flash floods, and tornadoes

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