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Lightning

Study lightning as a disaster for UPSC. Notes on science of lightning, India's vulnerable regions, death statistics, and mitigation steps.

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Lightning is a giant spark of electricity in the atmosphere between clouds, the air, or the ground. It can form between clouds, in the air, or on the ground. Air serves as an insulator between the positive and negative charges in the cloud and between the cloud and the ground during the early stages of development.

When rain, ice, or snow inside storm clouds collide, the result is an imbalance between the storm clouds and the ground that frequently negatively charges the lower levels of the storm clouds. Trees, and the Earth itself become positively charged when they come into contact with the ground, causing an imbalance that nature attempts to correct by allowing current to flow between the two charges.

Causes: 

There is a natural phenomenon called lightning that consists of short, highvoltage power discharges between clouds, accompanied by flashes and sometimes

thunderstorms. Cloud to ground (CG) lightning, which is caused by high electric current and voltage, is harmful because it can cause electrocution. Intercloud or intracloud (IC) lightning is harmless.

Effect:

  • There have been phenomenal losses of animal life as well as human life from lightning strikes.
  • An observer’s retina is violently sensitized by a lightning strike nearby. The eye is dazzled, and vision is lost for a while (several seconds).
  • Accidents caused by a direct stroke when lightning strikes a building, or a specific zone can cause considerable damage, usually by fire.

According to a report prepared by Climate Resilient Observing Systems Promotion Council

(CROPC), the Government of India and most states in India have not notified lightning as a Disaster.

Lightning typically occurs in cumulonimbus clouds, also known as thunderclouds. However, it can also happen in stratiform clouds, (which are layered clouds with a broad horizontal reach), snowstorms, dust storms, and occasionally in the gases and dust released by erupting volcanoes. Lightning can strike within a cloud, between clouds, between a cloud and the air, or between a cloud and the ground during a thunderstorm.