Top 10 Most Fascinating Facts About Lightning

While the temperatures of lightning bolts vary, the maximum temperature of a bolt of lightning is about 50,000 °F, whereas the surface of the sun is roughly 5,000 °F.

Whenever a bolt of lightning strikes and water is around, it heats up the area. Unless we're talking about a river or a larger body of water, the water immediately gets vaporized.

That's shocking, because most people think of the sun as the "hottest thing in existence."

I actually knew it was hotter than the sun.

Okay, I know this contradicts the idea of lightning being hotter than the surface of the sun, but that excessive heat actually comes from the air that a bolt of lightning penetrates. Therefore, the lightning bolt itself technically has no temperature whatsoever.

Although we often associate thunder and lightning with rain, lightning doesn't need rain. It can rain, but the temperature might be such that the rain evaporates before hitting the ground.

The most common place for dry lightning (or more professionally said, "dry thunderstorms") in the continental United States is the Bay Area. This is the number one reason there are always forest fires in California.

I have seen lightning without rain before and also heard thunder without rain.

It's a misconception that metal attracts lightning. It's attracted to the tallest thing around, which often has a fair amount of metal on it (goalposts, skyscrapers, etc.).

This is why people discourage standing in the middle of a field during a storm. You are the tallest thing around, so lightning will be attracted to you!

I thought it was attracted to metal. That is interesting that it is not.

Due mostly to the fact that the Greek god Zeus's weapon is a bolt of lightning and the power that a bolt of lightning has is god-like, various cultures (Greek, Roman, Norse, and even Christianity) have viewed lightning as a form of ultimate punishment from the gods or even capital-G God.

I know it sounds like something from the Book of Revelation or some other apocalyptic series of events, but it's actually quite real. When a volcano erupts, debris goes flying into the air in a plume, colliding with lightning, making an electrical charge.

In the same way as ordinary lightning, the imbalance of the plume's electrical charge and the charge in the atmosphere leads to lightning strikes, creating volcanic lightning.

This is probably very obvious to most, but it's not just because a bolt of lightning can blow the roof right off your house. If you are foolish enough to take a shower during a thunderstorm, the showerhead, being a good conductor of electricity, could attract lightning. When you touch it, you get zapped.

This is equally applicable to sinks, dishwashers, washing machines, and dryers.

I heard it's dangerous to take a bath or shower during a thunderstorm in case lightning hits your house.

There's a misconception that it's dangerous to touch someone who was struck by lightning, probably due to the assumption that you'll get zapped by them in some way. In fact, you might need to touch someone who was struck by lightning, as CPR plays a large role in their survival.

True. I saw someone touch a person on Rescue 911 when a guy got hit by lightning while he was about to take his dog for a walk during a thunderstorm. He probably should have waited until the storm was over, but he still survived. He was lucky.