A motorcyclist has died after being struck by lightning in Florida on Sunday 9 June 2019. The victim, identified as a 45-year-old-man from Charlotte, North Carolina, was travelling south on the I-95 near Ormond Beach in Volusia County when he was hit. It is unclear whether he was killed by the lightning or the subsequent crash.
Emergency vehicles on the I-95 in Florida after a motorcylist was struck by lightning on 9 June 2019. CBS.
Thunderstorms
occur when warm, moist bodies of air encounter cooler, drier air
packages. The warm air rises over the cooler air until it rises above
its dew point (the point where it cools to far to retain its water
content as vapor), and the water precipitates out, falling as rain,
sleet or hail.
Warm
moist air passing over the surface of the Earth acts as an electrical
generator, creating a negative charge in the cloud tops and a positive
charge at the ground (or occasionally in a second cloud layer). The
atmosphere acts as an electrical insulator, allowing this potential to
build up, until water begins to precipitate out. This allows a channel
of ionized air to form, carrying a current between the clouds and the
ground, which we perceive as lightning.
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