We have all witnessed lightning strikes in the sky.
Often, the question arises: “Where does lightning strike?”
This question can always be answered by opening and looking at the Lightning Map at https://www.lightningmaps.org
The map shows lightning strikes that have occurred in the last 60 minutes. Real-time data is obtained directly from the Blitzortung.org calculation servers, which use data from hundreds of meteorological stations on all continents.
Lightning is a visible electrical discharge that occurs when a cloud area accumulates excessive electric charge (positive or negative) sufficient to overcome air resistance. Lightning is usually associated with cumulonimbus clouds (thunderclouds), but it also occurs in stratiform clouds (layer clouds with a large horizontal volume), snowstorms, and dust storms, sometimes even in dust and gases emitted by erupting volcanoes.
During a thunderstorm, lightning can occur:
- within a cloud,
- between clouds,
- between a cloud and the air,
- between a cloud and the ground.
