lightning

The existence of lightning remains a mystery to atmospheric physics. Austria has given us a clue to solve it

by

It seems unbelievable, but in the middle of 2025 one of the most common and violent phenomena of nature continues keeping many secrets. This is the case of raywhich we know how to protect ourselves from and we know that Franklin had very right with your kite. But if we ask an atmospheric physicist what exactly detonates the first spark inside a cloud to start the download, you’ll probably shrug your shoulders. The discovery. We would expect the answer to this classic meteorology question in the sky itself, but in reality it seems to be in a laboratory in Austria. It has been here where they have achieved something that seems like magic: using lasers to trap microscopic particles in the air, and almost by accident, discovering a charging mechanism that could be the ‘missing link’ in the formation of lightning in our sky. What we knew. For lightning to strike, it is necessary that there is a monstrous electric field that breaks the resistance of air, something that has a name: dielectric breakdown. The problem is that when we measure the electric fields inside a thundercloud, the numbers don’t add up: They are too low to initiate lightning on their own. This means that scientists have long suspected that the secret was in the aerosols and ice crystals that collide within a cloud. And the theory is quite clear: if a small particle could accumulate enough charge, then it has the ability to create a micro-electric field around it so intense that it would start a chain reaction. The problem is that studying a microscopic ice grain in the middle of a storm is impossible, since we can be next to it and we cannot lower the cloud to the ground either. That is why this is where this research comes in, which has found a high-tech solution with optical tweezers. The experiment. To find the answer, a 532 nm green laser was used to make lift a silica sphere just a micron in diameter. But… Why? In this case, the initial objective was to measure forces precisely, but they encountered something very strange: the laser itself that held the particle was electrically charging it. Far from being a mistake, they realized that they had in front of them a perfect tool to simulate the atmosphere in miniature. It was no longer necessary to go to a cloud to analyze it. In this way, they began to charge a particle with so much static electricity that it caused a dielectric breakdown in the air around them, discharging themselves suddenly. They had literally created a controlled micro-ray in the laboratory. The authors of the study explicitly suggest that this system is an ideal model to study the electrification of aerosols and clouds. Its importance. Until now, studying these phenomena required getting into a storm-chasing plane or relying on computer simulations. But now we have the ability to simulate these conditions in a controlled way. And it is also ideal to understand why sometimes the sky seems like it is going to break in our own heads. Images | Michael Mancewicz In Xataka | What is a dry storm: when the sky throws lightning, but the rain never reaches the ground

When the sky throws lightning, but the rain never reaches the ground

by

These are not your feelings: this summer’s storms have been more brutal and destructive than ever. AND AEMET data says so. But to understand it well, we have to go one step further: we have to understand what is perhaps one of the key elements of the current enormous problem, dry storms. What are dry storms Luis Marina a storm It is, in essence, a crash, an impact, a violent ‘argument’ between two air masses with different temperatures and pressures. The warm, humid air rises quickly and this generates atmospheric disturbances accompanied by electrical discharges (lightning and thunder), strong winds and precipitation of rain, snow or hail. However, sometimes, even though the storm does contain moisture in the upper levels of the atmosphere, it’s not raining. There are lightning bolts, there are angry winds, there are clouds of great vertical development; but there is no precipitation that reaches the ground. We call that dry storm. Characteristics of dry storms As we said, the main characteristic of this type of storm is electrical activity (lightning and thunder) without significant precipitation on the surface. However, explaining the process and its characteristics is a little more complicated: It’s not that it doesn’t rain, it’s that the precipitation evaporates before hitting the ground. This occurs because these droplets pass through a layer of very warm and dry air. It is what is known, in technical terms, ‘virga’. For obvious reasons, it usually forms in arid, desert environments or during extreme heat waves. If the air in contact with the ground is exceptionally dry, the probability of evaporation in the fall increases. None of this has to do with its electrical activity, which is a lot. If these types of storms attract attention for something, it is the amount of thunder and lightning that develop. And if they are worrying for anything, it is because of the downward gusts of wind (caused by this rain evaporation process) that very dangerously increase the risk of fires. How a dry storm forms In reality, there is nothing strange about dry storms. They are, for all intents and purposes, normal storms. The “strange” thing is what happens on the ground: high temperatures and low humidity that favor the evaporation of rain. This simplifies things because the process is identical to that of any conventional thunderstorm: unstable air, sufficient humidity at high and mid levels, and a rising mechanism (intense heat, in this case). Everything else, including precipitation generation, is very similar. Relationship between dry storms and fires Max Larochelle Let’s not beat around the bush: the relationship between dry storms and wildfires is direct and dangerous. In fact, these types of storms are one of the main causes (unintentional) of fires. What’s more, due to the meteorological conditions that characterize them (dryness, heat, etc…), these types of events also facilitate the rapid spread of fire. You don’t have to be very imaginative: electrical activity without precipitation, low humidity, very high temperatures and strong (and gusty) winds are the perfect recipe for a macrofire. How to detect a dry storm A dry storm can be sensed by the presence of electrical activity without significant rain on land. But, as with almost everything in meteorology, to have an overview you need lightning detectors, weather radars (especially Doppler) and satellites. Consequences of dry storms David Moum The main consequences of this type of storm are also the most dangerous: fires. Its structural characteristics entail a high risk of forest fire (the combination of intense electrical activity and lack of rain) and, if that were not enough, promote the rapid spread of fire. Not in vain, the atmospheric conditions associated with dry storms (high temperatures, low relative humidity and strong gusts of wind) create a favorable environment for an incipient fire to spread at high speed and become uncontrollable. The main consequence of dry storms is, in short, to verify again and again that we do not have enough capacity for stop today’s fires. Image | NICOLA In Xataka | What are sixth generation fires: the megafires that create their own weather

30,000 lightning strikes, orange warnings and severe events: don’t call it ‘squall line’, call it ‘new normal’

by

During the early morning and early hours of this Wednesday, November 5, the arrival of a cold front to the Peninsula has caused a very active squall line throughout the southwest. And, in this case, saying “very active” is not an exaggeration: the images that they come to us from Portugal they are incredible and at the moment, he is heading to Extremadura and Western Andalusia. The interesting thing is that we no longer talk about meteorological information, we begin to enter the field of Okay, but what is a squall line? This is an organized storm system that, often ahead of a cold front, forms in a line. Due to its structure, this phenomenon causes strong and destructive winds, torrential rains, hail and lightning. In addition, they are characterized by advancing very quickly and being able to cause significant damage. In Xataka The "tropicalization" of the atmosphere is going to change Spain and not exactly for the better And so it has been. Portugal’s Civil Protection recorded more than 150 nighttime incidents and, as the Portuguese press explainedit is not just the problems caused by the rain and wind; is that tens of thousands of electric shocks have been recorded. About 30,000 in a few hours. Given this, AEMET activated orange noticesin Galicia, Extremadura and Andalusia. In addition, 122 Extremadura is prepared for rains of 5–20 l/m² in very short periods of time. It’s not a lot of water, but in these circumstances it can cause a lot of problems. Aren’t we talking about autumn showers? No, we are not talking about loose showers: it is an organized convection capable of producing severe gusts, hail and wet blowouts. They are formations that trigger the risk on urban areas, electrical networks and mobility. It’s another episode of “This is not just an Atlantic storm” that has been with us for weeks now. It is true that November is a typical month for hallways in the southwest; but the data suggests that we are facing something more. {“videoId”:”x89b35l”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”PROFESSIONAL STORM CHASERS_ this is their daily life”, “tag”:””, “duration”:”400″} What is really happening? In technical terms, we are talking about the arrival of an Atlantic trough and cold front with sufficient shear to organize convection and force a quasi-linear system. Ambient humidity does the rest and that is the key. As we said a few days agothat area of ​​the peninsula is prone to low convergences that, with adequate shear and sufficient humidity,They organize convectively very easily. As connections with the Gulf of Mexico (the famous ‘rivers of moisture’) become more common and, with them, the available humidity grows: these systems will become more frequent and more intense. It is the same as occurs in the Mediterranean with DANAs: It doesn’t matter if climate change causes more or not, the amount of “available fuel” makes any spark turn into a fire. Meteorologically speaking, of course. Image | Carlos Virazón (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news 30,000 lightning strikes, orange warnings and severe events: don’t call it ‘squall line’, call it ‘new normal’ was originally published in Xataka by Javier Jimenez .

What are lightning bolts and how are they formed, the impressive electrical discharges that scare and fascinate in equal measure?

by

The good news is that the chance of being struck by lightning this year is less than one in a million. Even better news is that 90% of people struck by lightning survive. Even so, it is always advisable to avoid risks when we are talking about atmospheric phenomena as violent as these. Lightning strikes cause both fear and fascination, a fascination that sometimes leads us to ask questions about the nature of these immense electrical columns. What is lightning Lightning is an electrical discharge (each lightning can generate several discharges), generally of very high power, that occur in clouds. These are meteorological phenomena that, although they have its origin in the atmospheresometimes they reach the surface of the Earth. We usually associate lightning with storms and cyclones, but these discharges can occur in other contexts, for example during volcanic eruptions, during fires of a certain intensity or when nuclear weapons are detonated. How lightning is formed Lightning usually occurs in stormy conditions and, the truth is that we do not fully know how. We know that under certain conditions, clouds can go accumulating electrical charges both positive and negative. In these cases, the air acts as an insulator between areas of positive or negative accumulation, as well as between these areas and the Earth. At a certain point, the accumulation of these charges exceeds a threshold that causes this insulating capacity of the air to give way. So all that accumulation of charges generates an electric current capable of traveling long distances (even several hundred kilometers). The discharge allows the electrical charge to balance, but the charges can accumulate again until the next lightning strike. What remains a mystery to us is the beginning of this process, how positive or negative charges accumulate in certain regions. The main hypothesis suggests that the origin of this accumulation is in tiny hail particles (also called graupel) that grow as they encounter supercold water droplets (in a liquid state but with temperatures below freezing). In thunderstorms, these icy particles would frequently collide, colliding with other icy particles. These collisions would cause the charges of the different particles to gain charge of one sign or another. Difference between lightning, thunder and lightning Electrical shocks are usually invisible to the human eye and they also do not generate noise, but this is not the case with lightning. Lightning generates not only a flash of intense light, but also a significant roar. We call the zigzag luminous path of lightning lightning. As it passes through the atmosphere, the electrical discharge causes the air to heat up to exceed temperatures of 27,000º Ceslius, a temperature higher than that observed on the surface of the Sun. This causes the air to become incandescent, generating lightning. Such rapid and intense heating of the air has another effect, making it “explode” outwards. This rapid movement of air is responsible for the second element that makes up lightning, sound or, in other words, the thunder. Light and sound move through the atmosphere at very different speeds. This is what makes us see lightning even seconds before its sound reaches our eardrums. This gap gives rise to an old trick to measure the distance at which the storm is from us. If we count the seconds of lag between light and sound and divide the result by three, we can estimate the distance in kilometers at which the lightning occurred. Types of lightning Cloud flashes and cloud-to-cloud Among conventional rays we can distinguish various types depending on the location of the points they join. The first of the groups that we can distinguish is that of the cloudy flashes. Most lightning strikes never reach the ground, in fact it is common for them not to even escape the cloud in which they occur. These rays are also often called intra-cloud rays. Within the category of lightning that never reaches the ground, there are some whose path partially escapes the cloud and even some that start in one cloud and reach another different cloud. Cloud-to-surface We distinguish these cloudy flashes and rays from those that do manage to reach the Earth’s surface. These types of discharges occur from the top down, at least when they happen naturally. The rays that join cloud and surface can be both negative and positive depending on where the respective negative and positive charges are located. Negative rays are the most common rays (they represent around 95% of impacts). In these rays, the clouds accumulate a negative charge and the Earth has a positive charge. When lightning opens the channel, the negative charge moves from the cloud to the ground, hence the name. The positive rays They are less frequent but at the same time more powerful. The reason is that these originate in higher areas of the cloud, so they must travel further. This in turn means that they accumulate more energy before discharging. Other unique events However, there is a different category that we call transient light events, or TLE (transient luminous events). These phenomena are much less frequent, more difficult to observe and, as a consequence, much more mysterious. How powerful is lightning? The strength of lightning can vary considerably depending on atmospheric conditions and the Earth’s surface. As explained According to the United States National Weather Service, a “typical” lightning strike can discharge about 30,000 amperes with 300 million volts. However, we pointed out before that a positive ray can transport much more energy. According to NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), the organization on which the American meteorological service depends, these types of discharges can be an order of magnitude higher, discharging 300,000 amperes with 1,000 million volts. Many will wonder Why don’t we take advantage of this energy? and the answer is that, today, there are too many difficulties to make this technology a reality. First, we must keep in mind that lightning is a transitory phenomenon that can occur in different places: to obtain its energy we would have … Read more

With a drone that hunts lightning

by

The story, perhaps apocryphal, tells that in 1752 Benjamin Franklin made Your famous experiment of the kite with the help of his son William. The experiment consisted of “hunting” a ray through flying gadget and driving it to the ground through the rope, moistened for this purpose. More than 270 years later, they are no longer comets that we send to catch these atmospheric electric discharges. A drone to hunt rays. A Japanese researchers team has created A rayproof drone, an important feature since its function is precisely attracting these electrical discharges towards it. A system expressly designed to unleash and guide the rays in a storm thanks to a guided air vehicle from land. A flying lightning rod. The main use of this device would be to act as a steering wheel lightning. The mechanism can be coupled to any commercial drone and deploy in contexts in which the discharges associated with a storm could represent a risk. According to Explain the team Responsible for the development, only in Japan the costs associated with the impact of the rays range between 100,000 and 200,000 million yen (between 610 and 1,220 million euros) per year. And it is that the rays not only imply a risk for people (and animals), also to buildings and infrastructure. Faraday cage. Surviving a ray is not easy, so perhaps the most important piece in this drone is a Faraday cage. These types of devices They are based on the fact that the resulting electromagnetic field inside a equilibrium driver is null. This means that no burden is able to cross and enter this cage. Thanks to this, the drone is protected from lightning, a download that is not something almost everyday is less impressive: A “typical” ray Download about 30,000 amps with 300 million volts. Putting the ingenuity to the test. The team was testing its mechanism between December 2024 and January this year. In one of the tests, they detected thanks to a field mill an increase in the force of the electric field in a cloud, occasion they took to display the device at a height of 300 meters. The drone carried a cable that linked it with the earth through a switch at the ground level. When activating the switch, the equipment observed an important current circulating through the cable, accompanied by a “significant” increase in the force of the electric field. The team confirmed the passage of more than 2,000 volts between the cable and the earth, just before the burst of the ray. The experiment had been a success. A single use. The drone survived the impact, the cage that protected him, no. According to detailed the team responsible for developmentthe protective device was partially melted by the impact of lightning, but the drone inside the cage was able to continue its flight without major problem. Capturing energy. The team responsible for this flying lightning rod even speaks of the possibility of taking advantage of the energy of the rays captured by the artifact. For now we continue to be able to channel and control the enormous energy that these natural events emanate in a single moment. Maybe we will be able to completely tame this force of nature. If we succeed, having a versatile device that allows us to go to the right point will surely be very useful. In Xataka | The most disconcerting ray was detected in Oklahoma, 100 times more powerful than normal and in the direction of the stars Image | Takenbytablo / NTT

Musk’s political ambition has turned Tesla into an ideological lightning rod. And the whole company is paying

by

Tesla’s action touched its historical maximum at the end of 2024, just in time for Christmas. Since then You just made receiving coala paradox for the leader of the electric transition. From $ 480 to 240. Half. 50% fall (and 15% in a single session last Monday) is no longer a market correction or temporary fluctuation. Is the materialization of the political risk that Musk has accumulated deliberately during the last two years. Musk, with its lights and their shadows, It is an atypical phenomenon and a case study like or not. But he has also starred in his own even more atypical phenomenon in recent business history: the transmutation of an aspirational brand in the object of cultural repulsion for a part of its original client base, as stated The Verge. Tesla built an empire on very specific pillars: Technological innovation Environmental sustainability. A vision of the future techno -optimist. It was a perfect car – figured and literally – for progressive consumers with purchasing power that wanted to signal not only financial power, but avant -garde values. Musk’s political turn has caused a cognitive dissonance too heavy For a good part of this segment. This ideological fracture can be put figures. In California, one of the great progressive bastions and originally the most important market for Tesla, Model 3 sales They collapsed in 2024. In Europe, collapse has been even greateralthough it would be unfair to signal only to Musk’s personal future, since here a perfect storm has come together. They are more typical figures of A brand exodus – Here we can point to Chinese cars, but in the United States not – than a simple sector recession. Especially because even in Europe we have seen A growth of 34% in electric car sales at this time. The most visible demonstration of this brand crisis is the spontaneous emergence of an ecosystem of embarrassed owners. From apology stickers (“I bought it before Elon went crazy”) to the replacement of the Tesla logo with other generic badges. They are drivers who seek to dissociate their creator’s car. The protests have climbed to pure and hard vandalism, with concessionaires Tiring in Oregon, Molotov cocktails in Colorado and some Cybertruck on fire in Seattle. Tesla has become An ideological lightning rod. Meanwhile, competition has taken advantage of that vulnerability. Hyundai, Kia, GM U Honda (let’s mention Chinese brands on this side of the Atlantic) have been launching electrical alternatives perhaps not as painting as a tesla, but already attractive and more or less reasonable prices. In this equation There is a blind spot: Musk itself. His political ambitions and his parallel agenda with Trump have eclipsed their business vision. Tesla needs more than ever its affordable model – about $ 25,000, The repeated and deformed promise since 2018– To compete against byd, omoda, Jaecoo and company. But Musk is aspiring to something much older, maybe even too conceptual, such as Humanoid robots. Or with the promises of robotaxis that do not finish arriving … while Waymo already operates real fleets of autonomous taxis. Tesla’s technical credibility has also worsened. The promise that all cars manufactured after 2016 contained the necessary hardware for totally autonomous driving turned out to be true. Musk He admitted that they will have to replace on board computersa process that he confessed “painful”, and now faces collective demands for deceptive advertising. Tesla was, is and will surely be the king of the electric car in many ways, but something has changed lately. Trump can convert the White House into a Tesla dealership and proclaim in your social network Your absolute support to Muskbut You cannot reverse financial physics. The destruction of value has been monumental: 800,000 million dollars of stock market capitalization and 100,000 million of Musk’s personal heritage have evaporated in less than one semester. Even some historical shareholders, loyal to Musk, They have sold mass actionssuch as Robyn Denholm (the president of the Council) or James Murdoch (son of Rupert). There is a fire in Tesla, but that is not too worrying, every company happens at some time. The problem is that it is self -induced. Tesla will survive, surely, it has a solid cash position and hard -working economies. We are no longer in 2019. The real question is whether you can recover your old statusthat of Visionaria company, while its founder is still determined to sacrifice it on the altar of its political aspirations. The divorce between Tesla and a part of its original customer base seems difficult to reverse in the short term. The maximum irony of this story may be that the greatest enemy of the original mission of Tesla – to school the world transition towards sustainable energy – turns out to be Musk itself. Outstanding image | Tesla In Xataka | Tesla’s most buoyant business is also the most unknown: energy generation and storage

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.