• Question: When lightning strikes where do all the electrical particles come from?

    Asked by to Daren, Lynne, Phillip, Simon on 20 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Lynne Thomas

      Lynne Thomas answered on 20 Jun 2014:

      A cloud is made up of water vapour and when it gets cool enough, this water vapour turns into ice. The ice particles are all moving about and when they bump into each other they become charged. It is the discharge of this which causes lightening much like the discharge of static when you get an electric shock from a door handle or something.

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