Do storms clear the air?

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asked Mar 22, 2022 in Weather by Tweetybirdy (800 points)
Do storms clear the air?

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answered Mar 25, 2022 by Gingervitis (23,640 points)
Storms do clear the air and clear and clean the air of particles, dust and other pollutants.

After a storm blows through or even a rainstorm you can usually smell a difference in the air and can usually breathe better as a result.

This is because of the storm that cleaned the air.

The rains and winds of thunderstorms often clear out particulate matter in the air.

Few sensations compare to the tangible freshness of the outdoors following the drama and violence of a big thunderstorm.

Often associated with a drop in temperature, such disturbances may also literally clear the air.

Thunderstorms are named and classified through a variety of data that the meteorologists collect.

In order to forecast thunderstorms, meteorologists use a variety of data.

Surface and upper air observations are studied to find areas of low level moisture and instability, and to determine how winds aloft might influence storm development.

Radar and satellites are used to track the storms once they do form.

The scientific name for lightning is fulminology.

Fulminology is the study of lightning.

Lightning is defined as a discharge of electricity between clouds and the earth seen as a bright flash followed by the sound of thunder heard.

The Thunderstorm is said to be a rain shower during which thunder is heard.

Volcanology is the study of volcanoes.

Lightning is a giant spark of electricity in the atmosphere between clouds, the air, or the ground.

In the early stages of development, air acts as an insulator between the positive and negative charges in the cloud and between the cloud and the ground.

Lightning is produced in thunderstorms when liquid and ice particles above the freezing level collide, and build up large electrical fields in the clouds.

Dry lightning is lightning that occurs without rain nearby.

The NOAA Storm Prediction Center routinely issues forecasts for dry lightning because this kind is more likely to cause forest fires.

Air is a very poor conductor of electricity and gets extremely hot when lightning passes through it.

In fact, lightning can heat the air it passes through to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5 times hotter than the surface of the sun).

Lightning is so loud because the amount of electrical energy that flows from the cloud to the ground is so enormous: it's like a very big waterfall of electricity.

The louder the sound that you hear, the closer you are to the lightning.

Light travels through air much faster than sound.

Because lightning tends to hit tall objects, trees are likely targets.

They're especially prone to lightning strikes because electricity seeks the path of least resistance, and the sap and moisture inside a tree make it a better conductor than the surrounding air.

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