How many gigawatts in a bolt of lightning?
612298
up to 10 trillion watts
485476
if you see a lightning bolt, count off the seconds until you hear the noise...divide by 5 and that tells you how many miles away the bolt was from you.
511620
There are eight diffrent kinds  of lightning \nthere is a upward stroke but the first is downward  so your both right but the down comes first......\n the website below has all the info on lightning all eight kinds. I hope it was a good bet to win..
439061
Lightning is electricity. When the clouds build up too much electrons and the voltage between the cloud and the ground is great enough to cause air to break down and conduct, you get lighting. Its like a spark.
548407
Yeah, it does...The truth is, lightning tries to find the shortest distance to ground (The Earth). Although the odds are favorable that lightning won't strike the same place twice, there is nothing in nature to prevent it. It can strike 3 or 4 times in the same spot.
1088763
A lot of static electricity in the air can cause "dry lightning".  I assume that is what happened.
1168766
Lightning during a snowstorm.
133072
When lighning strikes, is causing the surrounding air to get extreamly hot and expand very quickly, causing thunder.\n\nSince you can see the efffects of lighning, you can tell pretty much instantly when a bold a lightning struck, it takes virtually no time for the light to travel to you.\nOn the other hand, the sound of the thunder travels at the speed of sound (MUCH slower than light), so it can take a significant amount of time for you to "hear" the effects of the lighning.\n\nSince the lighning bolt and the thunk clap pretty much occur at the same time, using the difference in the amount of time for you to detect them can tell you how far away they occured (since we know the approx. seed of sound is ~5 miles / sec).\nFor every 1 second that goes by between seeing the lighning and hearing the thunder, you are 5 miles away from there it occured.
785117
an Electrical storm involves lightning.\nAnd lightning can travel at the speed of light.\nBecause it mostly is light.\n\nThunder is slower and goes at the speed of sound so we hear the thunder later.
757146
Lightning is one of the oldest observed natural phenomena on earth. At the same time, it also is one of the least understood. While lightning is simply a gigantic spark of static electricity (the same kind of electricity that sometimes shocks you when you touch a doorknob), scientists do not have a complete grasp on how it works, or how it interacts with solar flares impacting the upper atmosphere or the earth's electromagnetic field.\nLightning has been seen in volcanic eruptions, extremely intense forest fires, surface nuclear detonations, heavy snowstorms, and in large hurricanes. However, it is most often seen in thunderstorms.At any given moment, there can be as many as 2,000 thunderstorms occurring across the globe. This translates to more than 14.5 MILLION storms each year. NASA satellite research indicated these storms produce lightning flashes about 40 times a second worldwide.This is a change from the commonly accepted value of 100 flashes per second which was an estimate from 1925. Whether it is 40, 100, or somewhere in between, we live on an electrified planet.\n\nThe Sound of Thunder\nRegardless of whether lightning is positive or negative, thunder is produced the same way. Thunder is the acoustic shock wave resulting from the extreme heat generated by a lightning flash. Lightning can be as hot as 54,000°F (30,000°C), a temperature that is five times the surface of the sun! When lightning occurs, it heats the air surrounding its channel to that same incredible temperature in a fraction of a second.\n\nLike all gases, when air molecules are heated, they expand. The faster they are heated, the faster their rate of expansion. But when air is heated to 54,000°F in a fraction of a second, a phenomenon known as "explosive expansion" occurs. This is where air expands so rapidly that it compresses the air in front of it, forming a shock wave similar to a sonic boom. Exploding fireworks produce a similar result.\n\nWhat is the difference between a thundershower and a thunderstorm?  \nTechnically, there is none. In general, the term "thundershower" tends to denote a fairly weak storm with light to moderate rainfall and low levels of lightning activity. However, there are no defined parameters that distinguish between a thundershower and a thunderstorm. In fact, in order to avoid confusion, we in the National Weather Service do not use the term "thundershower". If a shower is strong enough to produce lightning, even just one single bolt, it's called a thunderstorm.\n\nTo Learn More about Lightning and Thunder go to \nhttp://www.srh.weather.gov/jetstream/lightning/lightning_intro.htm\n\nLIGHTNING SAFETY A MUST READ\nLightning is the MOST UNDERRATED weather hazard. On average, only floods kill more people. Lightning makes every single thunderstorm a potential killer, whether the storm produces one single bolt or ten thousand bolts.\n\nIn the United States, lightning routinely kills more people each year than tornadoes and hurricanes COMBINED. Tornadoes, hail, and wind gusts get the most attention, but only lightning can strike outside the storm itself. Lightning is the first thunderstorm hazard to arrive and the last to leave.\n\nLightning is one of the most capricious and unpredictable characteristics of a thunderstorm. Because of this, no one can guarantee an individual or group absolute protection from lightning. However, knowing and following proven lightning safety guidelines can greatly reduce the risk of injury or death. Remember, YOU are ultimately responsible for your personal safety, and should take appropriate action when threatened by lightning.\n\nWhile no place is 100% safe from lightning, some places are much safer than others.\nWhere to Go Where NOT to Go \nThe safest location during a thunderstorm is inside a large enclosed structure with plumbing and electrical wiring. These include shopping centers, schools, office buildings, and private residences.\n\nIf lightning st
1123936
the lightning actually starts in the ground from static electricity...I always thought it was odd starting from ground...
1140417
There is a great article to read on this, from How Stuff Works.  Its under "How Lightning Works", but it talks about both lightning and thunder.  My students got a lot out of it.
904869
amplification by billion volts!
500891
At a guess I would say it was St. Elmos Fire.... No, not the movie... St. Elmos Fire is Ball Lightning. While not a whole lot is known about ball lightning it is very cool. I wish I had more information for you.
8576
I saw an interesting documentary on Nova about this.  There is a scientest that has some good proof that the tremendous energy required for lightening to strike actually comes from outside of our earth.  He came to this conclusion after finding that the energy produced by the seperation of + and - in a cloud was just not nearly enough to make the lightening happen.\n\nSo get this, his theory is that the extra energy comes from cosmic rays delivered by dying stars.  He has proved this by using equipment which detected X-Rays where thunder clouds are.
1032236
I agree with a number of the other posts that you should state the question correctly. One doesn't see thunder, but I'm assuming you are talking about the light from the lightning that created the thunder.......yes?\n\nAnyway, with such an assumption, and based on the numbers in your question, you will see the lightning from the northern-most strike before you see the one from the south.\n\nThe train will have moved roughly 0.475 inches when the lightning flash reaches the observer, and therefore this ligtning flash has this much less to travel before reaching the train.\n\nIf you're actually talking about thunder......or....sound, you'd still hear the nothern-most thunder first.
684422
I know EM can go up to 100,000x (maybe beyond?), and light can go up to 1000x.  I'm not sure what the limit on EM is, but i think it's less than 800,000x.  So #4 looks right.