Hello ladies and gents this is the Viking telling you that today we are talking about
1. The speed of lightning
While the flashes we see as a result of a lightning strike travel at the speed of light (670,000,000 mph) an actual lightning strike travels at a comparatively gentile 270,000 mph.
This means it would take about 55 minutes to travel to the moon, or around 1.5 seconds to get from London to Bristol.
2. When lightning strikes a beach
When lightning strikes sand or sandy soil, it fuses together the grains to create a small glass-like tube known as a fulgurite.
They are not only prized by collectors, they are also of great scientific value in demonstrating past occurrence of lightning storms.
3. The most lightning-struck location in the world
Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela is the place on Earth that receives the most lightning strikes. Massive thunderstorms occur on 140-160 nights per year with an average of 28 lightning strikes per minute lasting up to 10 hours at a time.
That's as many as 40,000 lightning strikes in one night!
4. Helicopters cause lightning
Recent research from the Met Office revealed that helicopters can cause an isolated lightning strike. While flying, the helicopter acquires a negative charge, so if it flies close to an area that is positively charged (e.g. hail or the base of a cumulonimbus cloud) it can trigger a lightning strike. Investigating and predicting helicopter-triggered lightning strikes
5. 1,400,000,000 strikes every year
Lightning strike per year
Lightning is one of nature's most recurrent and common spectacles. Around the world, there are over 3,000,000 flashes every day.
That's around 44 strikes every second.
And as always have a chilled day from the Viking
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