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Meteorology              Charles A. Giannetta
                         Meteorologist - Professor 

"L I G H T N I N G"

Lightning...An electrical discharge produced by electrical buildup
            in a thunderstorm between cloud and ground or cloud
            to cloud which produces a brilliant flash of light.

Lightning...Dart Leader: An electrical charge ionized channel which
            dart from the thunderstorm cloud to the ground after
            the Stepped Leader has estabilished contact with the
            ground.

Lightning...Stepped Leaders: Streams of electrons which ove from a
            thunderstorm clouds towards the groung in steps of about
            300 feet and produce an ionized path. When the Stepped 
            Leader comes within about 300 feet of the ground it is
            met by a charge from the ground to complete the path.

1.   Lightning:  About 100 people are killed each year.
2.   Lightning:  Blue Jets: Large dim flashes of light which appear
                 above thunderstorms. 
3.   Lightning:  Can come up from the ground and hit you.
4.   Lightning:  Can travel over power & telephone lines.
5.   Lightning:  Chances of being het by lightning about 600,000 to 1.
6.   Lightning:  Does strike twice in the same place.
7.   Lightning:  Is a giant dischage of electricity.
8.   Lightning:  If playying outdoors/swimming/sports/golf/fishing
                 get indoors.
9.   Lightning:  LDN: Lightning Detection Network: Detects the radio
                 waves produced by lightning.
10.  Lightning:  Red Sprites: Large dim flashes of light which appear
                 above thunderstorms.
11.  Lightning:  Retuen Stroke: Lightning Arresters.
12.  Lightning:  Safety Rules: Do not lie down.
13.  Lightning:  Safety Rules: Do not stand under a tree or trees.
14.  Lightning:  Safety Rules: Get in a prone position.
15.  Lightning:  Safety: Stay away from tall trees & objects/steel
                 fences/telephones.
16.  Lightning:  Sferics: Short for atmospherics.
17.  Lightning:  Stay indoors in you car. Stay off phone.
18.  Lightning:  Step Leader: Dart Leader: About 300 feet per second.
19.  Lightning:  St. Elmo's Fire: Named after the patron saint.
20.  Lightning:  Travels at the speed of light from distance storms.
21.  Lightning:  Types: Heat Lightning: Light from distant thunderstorms.
22.  Lightning:  Types: In Cloud (IC): Cloud To Cloud (CC).
23.  Lightning:  Types: Sheet Lightning. 
24.  Lightning:  Types: Streak/Ball/Fork/Cloud To Cloud.
25.  Lightning:  Types: Cloud To Ground. (CG)

"L I G H T N I N G   T Y P E S"

1.  Ball Lightning...Lightning that is a rare ball of electrical
                     charged air reddish in color which lasts for
                     a very short duration.

2.  Cloud To Air.....Lightning in the air but does not reach the ground.

3.  Cloud To Cloud...Lightning between clouds.

4.  Cloud To Ground..Lightning between the cloud and the ground.

5.  In Cloud.........Lightning which occurs in the cloud.

6.  Sheet Lightning..Lightning which occurs inside the clouds.

7.  Heat Lightning...Lightning fron a distant thunderstorm.

Meteorology              Charles A. Giannetta
                         Meteorologist - Professor 

"Lightning Types" 

   There are different descriptions of lightning, and the most
common type observed is streak lightning. It appears as a rather
sinuous shape although commonly drawn as a zigzag. Its shape i
very much like the outline of a river. It may be a single streak, 
but in most times it is split off into into smaller jagged branches.
Bead Lightning...Is a form of streak lightning. The appearance of
beads may be caused by variations in the luminosity along the channel 
of the stroke which takes on a brushlike discharge quality.

"Ribbon Lightning" 

   Ribbon Lightning...Is streak lightning with multiple discharges
where the channel is blown sideways by the wind.

"Fork Lightning" 

  Fork Lightning...This term is used to describe strokes which seem to
have several apparently simultaneous paths to the ground. 

"Heat Lightning" 

  Heat Lightning...Is the form of steak lightning far enough away in 
distance so that thunder is not head. 

" Sheet Lightning" 

   Sheet Lightning is a diffused, glowlike lightning whiteish in color, 
extending in clouds over a considerable area in the lower atmosphere. 
The wide distribution of sheet lightning and its relatively persistent
glow mark the principal differences between it and heat lightning. 


"Ball Lightning" 

   Ball Lightning...Has been described as a luminous ball, somewhat 
reddish in color with an average diameter of about four to five 
inches having been observed emerging from clouds at several hundred
feet per second , floating horizontally through the air or moving 
along the ground in a stalled motion. Only visible briefly, it either 
dissappears quietly or with a loud explosion.

"Lightning is whitish in color" 

   Lightning is whitish in color, having the combined spectrum of 
Oxygen and Nitrogen. It sometimes appears differently colored against
different back grounds and surrounding in contrast to yellowish 
artifical light. 

   Lightning may appear bluish or reverse if lights are blue-toned. 
When very moist air is ionized as to produce the spectrum of Hydrogen,
lightning may seem somewhat reddish. 

   The old adage about lightning never stiking twice in the same place 
is untrue. Many lightning flashes are of the multiple variety and strike 
repeatedly in the pace of a few seconds. The towers on top of the 
Empire State Building often intercept severeal bolts during a severe 
thunderstorm. Lightning strokes flash through a few thousand feet and 
last a few millionths of a second, made up of severeal pulses following
each other in rapid succession. 

  They come so close together that the eye cannot always distinguish
them. These seperate pulses make lightning flashes seem to licker
at times.