The lightning that looks like a fire is known as St. Elmo's fire and ball lightning.
Saint Elmo's fire, luminosity accompanying brush like discharges of atmospheric electricity that sometimes appears as a faint light on the extremities of pointed objects such as church towers or the masts of ships during stormy weather, or along electric power lines.
The ball lightning, also called globe lightning, a rare aerial phenomenon in the form of a luminous sphere that is generally several centimeters in diameter.
It usually occurs near the ground during thunderstorms, in close association with cloud-to-ground lightning.
The thing that draws lightning to the ground is the positive charges also known as protons in the ground.
Lightning hits the ground when the negative charges or electrons in the bottom of a cloud are attracted to the positive charges or protons in the ground.
When lightning hits a car the lightning strike will sometimes damage the electrical system, tires, rear windshield and antenna and the heat from the lightning strike is also sufficient to partially melt and antenna on a vehicle and cause what can seem like a small explosion of sparks as tiny fragments of metal melt and burn.
This does not always happen and sometimes nothing will happen or the electrical system may just be damaged from the lightning strike as the lightning strikes can be different.
The reason you're safe in a car during lightning is because of the metal cage of the car acts like a Faraday cage and surrounds you inside the vehicle.
The metal cage of the car protects you from lightning as the metal cage of the car directs the lightning charge around the vehicle occupants and safely into the ground.
You are safe in a car during a lightning storm as the vehicles tires insulate the car from the ground in case of a lightning strike and because the metal shell of the car provides protection to people inside the vehicle with the windows closed.
Things you should never do in a lightning storm are go outside, take showers, use corded phones, computers, open your windows, sit on porches, lay on or sit on concrete floors, swim, go into the ocean, go boating, lean against concrete walls.
You should stay inside during a lightning storm and stay away from windows, avoid any plumbing such as showers, baths, faucets and unplug TVs and computers to prevent them from being damaged by a possible lightning strike.
In order to feel lightning you would have to be as close as between 60 to 100 feet to the lightning to feel the lightning.
If you're more than 100 feet away from the lightning then it's very unlikely that you would be struck by or feel the lightning.
A lightning bolt is Hotter Than The Sun.
Lightning bolts and lightning is 5 times hotter than the surface of the sun as lightning can heat the air it passes through to 50,000 degrees F.
The average lightning bolt is as hot as 53,540 degrees which is also 5 times hotter than the sun.
The hottest type of lightning is white lightning which is not only the hottest type of lightning but also the most dangerous color of lightning because of it being so hot.
White lightning usually indicates a low concentration of moisture in the air and also a high concentration of dust in the air.
The lightning capital of the world is located is Venezuela where the Cataumbo River meets with Lake Maracaibo.
The Maracaibo Beacon in Venezuela has claimed many lives.
The dark storm clouds block out the sky, zapping incessant sparks along the horizon, in a way that looks like a movie and feels like a different world.
This is the Beacon of Maracaibo, also known as Catatumbo Lightning.
The lightning capital of the United States is Florida.
Other lightning capitals of the USA are Arkansas, California and Colorado as well as Texas.
Death by lightning is rare and the odds of getting struck by lightning or dying from a lightning strike are less than 1 in a million.
Also nearly 90% of people struck by lightning do survive.
The state that has the most lightning deaths per years is Florida, followed by Texas, Colorado, North Carolina and Alabama.
Lightning strike deaths also vary by region, time of year and day of the week.
Washington, D.C. is the state that has the least lightning strikes.
The state that is lightning Alley is Florida.
The corridor from Tampa Bay, FL to Titusville, FL is lightning Alley which gets the most lightning in the United States on an annual basis.
The states that have the worst lightning are Florida and Texas.
Texas has a higher lightning count than any other state including Florida which is because of it's size and location.
Florida ranks highest for lightning density, with an average of 109.84 lightning strikes per square kilometer last year.
The state of Texas ranks highest for the total number of lightning strikes, with 27,696,688 strikes last year.
Superbolt lightning is a type of lightning that is the most powerful lightning on earth that discharges so strong that the lightning strikes cannot be reproduced in a laboratory.
Superbolt lightning produces as much power as 10 billion to 1 trillion watts of electrical power which is enough power to power a U.S home for 1 month or longer.
Spider lightning is a type of lightning that has long, horizontally traveling flashes that are most often seen on teh underside of stratiform clouds.
The spider lightning is also often linked to +CG flashes.
Dark lightning is a burst of what is called gamma rays which is produced by the collision of very fast moving electrons as well as molecules which takes place during thunderstorms.
The dark lightning is also referred to as a terrestrial gamma ray flash.
Red lightning is lightning that is red in color and is also caused by a build up of electrical charge in clouds although in the case of red lightning the excess charge is released into the ionosphere around 50 miles up instead of to the ground.
The 4 types of lightning are.
Intracloud lightning.
Ground to Cloud lightning.
Cloud to Air lightning.
Positive cloud to ground lightning.
Another type of lighting is Cloud to ground lightning or intercloud lightning.
The rarest kind of lightning is ball lightning also called globe lightning which is a rare aerial phenomenon in the form of a luminious sphere which is most often several centimeters in diameter.
Cloud to ground lightning is rare but also the most dangerous form of lightning.
Cloud to ground lightning is negatively charged and the negatively charged storm base, positive charge begins to pool within the surface of the earth and the positive charge will shadow the storm wherever it goes and is responsible for the cloud to ground lightning.
Cloud to ground lightning occurs every single second and about 100 cloud to ground lightning strikes the ground every second.
Cloud to ground lightning occurs every single second and about 100 cloud to ground lightning strikes the ground every second.
The cloud-to-ground lightning strikes, only make up approximately 20% of all lightning strikes.
Cloud to ground lightning means that the lightning strike occurs between the clouds and the ground.
Cloud to air lightning is when lighting occurs when the air around the positively charged cloud top then reaches out to the negatively charged air around it.
The state that has the most cloud to ground lightning is the state of Texas and they have recorded at least 41,914,516 lightning strikes.
Most lighting strikes are not cloud to ground as around 20 percent of all lightning strikes are cloud to ground.
Cloud to ground lightning strike are rare.
Rainbow lightning does exist although it's very rare to see rainbow lightning as the chances of the lightning flashing near a rainbow are very slim.