The answer to this kind of upsetting experience was one that I didn’t even make the top ten list of U.S. Cities with the most density of lightning. However, Tampa was thought to be the lightning capital of the world and I have been living in Tampa since then.
1. Green River, Wyoming2. Rock Springs, Wyoming3. Dickinson, North Dakota4. Pierre, South Dakota5. North Platte, Nebraska.
6. Vernal, Utah7. Huron, South Dakota8. Spearfish, South Dakota9. Kirksville, Missouri10. Hays, Kansas.
Lightning Comes in Different Colors
The sky often displays colors other than pink, blue, and purple. It is also common to see violet, as well as colors like blue, cyan, green, yellow, and red. These colors can appear tinged with another color around the edges, but lightning is always white due to its immense power. Another cool fact about lightning is that it can be any color of the rainbow.
How Many Times Does Lightning Strike Earth?
A thunderbolt holds electrical energy in a manner that, if we were able to comprehend, could potentially supply power to numerous small towns or even whole cities. I began to envision the frequency at which lightning strikes the Earth: approximately 100 instances every second, which adds up to roughly three billion lightning bolts annually! Given my occupation as an article writer for an energy consultancy firm, this information sparked my curiosity.
So, how much electricity does a lightning bolt contain?
A single bolt of lightning is estimated to contain more than one billion volts of electricity, providing enough power for an entire small town for a day.
How Much Electricity Does a Lightning Bolt Contain?
Have you ever pondered the amount of electricity contained within a lightning bolt?
Last week, I wrote an article discussing the fact that Benjamin Franklin, who was thinking about electricity, invented it. Franklin’s invention of electricity was not the result of his experiment with a kite flying during a thunderstorm on June 10, 1752, where he suspected that a lightning bolt contained electricity and enabled him to demonstrate this by collecting electricity in a Leyden jar, known as Franklin’s “kite experiment,” later leading to his concern about protecting people and buildings from lightning by inventing other structures.
The kite soared into a thunderstorm and absorbed ambient electrical energy from the storm. Conversely, the lightning strike could have incinerated the kite and potentially electrocuted the individual. Numerous individuals hold the belief that the kite was struck by lightning, though this was not the case. Had it been so.
I was surprised to discover some pretty awesome information about lightning and electricity. It got me thinking about just how much electricity a lightning bolt contains.
Below, you can observe an image of a Layden jar and the lightning rod he created, along with a depiction of Franklin carrying out the kite experiment.
How Many Watts Does a Lightning Bolt Emit?
The unit used to measure electrical power is a gigawatt. One billion watts is equal to one gigawatt. A lightning bolt can produce a power of 1.21 gigawatts. The strength of lightning strikes varies.
Many people think that watts refer to the brightness of a light bulb, but it’s actually a measurement of how much energy is needed to power it. You are probably familiar with watts in reference to household light bulbs, as lamps and lighting fixtures typically range from 60 to 100 watts.
Sufficient to supply approximately 12 million light bulbs with electricity, a more realistic way to quantify the energy of a single lightning bolt would be to state that it has enough power to sustain over 850,000 households or a small town for an entire day! Therefore, if a lightning bolt carries 1.21 gigawatts of power, how substantial is that amount?
How Fast is a Lightning Bolt?
Swift like a flash of lightning, bolts of lightning are equally astonishingly swift, vibrant, and remarkably scorching, apart from possessing immense strength, if you’ve ever come across the expression “rapid as a lightning bolt!”
“Yeah, that’s fast! An actual bolt of lightning travels at about 270,000 mph, but it’s not that slow. However, when we see that flash, we see a bolt of lightning itself traveling a bit slower at 670,000,000 mph, which is the speed of light.”
All the energy in a lightning bolt is released in approximately 50 microseconds. A lightning bolt is exceptionally slender, enhancing its intensity. At the moment of striking the Earth, the diameter of a lightning bolt can range from one to seven inches.
Did you know that I found an entire Reddit thread discussing the odds of cooking an egg with lightning? It sounds crazy, but I thought it was funny and delightful. I didn’t ask the person who brought it up to me in my science class, but it brought back memories of my days as a kid. I found all these cool facts about lightning! That’s some seriously fast and concentrated power.
Harnessing Electricity in a Lightning Bolt
After answering my initial query about the amount of electricity found in a lightning bolt, I began to ponder the feasibility of harnessing that electrical energy.
We can harness the power of renewable energy by focusing on transforming everyday things like your cell phone, light bulbs, a manufacturing plant, and your home into usable forms of electricity, capturing the energy of lightning.
According to MIT, they have released a paper on the concept of harnessing lightning bolts to solve the many challenges it poses. However, it has not yet been solved. This is not the first time I have asked this question, as usual.
In order to effectively contain the massive surge of energy and safeguard the entire facility from destruction, it would be necessary to incorporate strong and reliable safety mechanisms. Achieving this goal could be accomplished by utilizing tall metallic rods that extend high above the ground, which would effectively draw in any electrical charges present in the atmosphere and direct them into the facility.
While we have developed ways to create electricity from plentiful sources of energy that surround us, we have not yet developed a way to use the electricity contained in a lightning bolt.
Everywhere you look in nature, electricity is just a matter of harnessing the most popular natural sources of power.
Sometimes, it can be challenging to offset your entire energy needs, but installing solar panels is not the only large investment. As the demand for electricity grows, more and more businesses are establishing goals for renewable energy or green energy production.
Professionals Energy has teamed up with renewable energy companies to assist local communities in achieving their renewable energy production goals. This includes solar and wind farms, as well as green energy suppliers.
To learn more about our sustainable energy initiatives, please contact us at: (844) 674-5465.