Does lightning strike the same place twice?
551417
Yes it does...the empire state building gets struck on an average of 100 times a year.
589126
the flash of electricity is lightning... the sound that follow is thunder... storm usually occurs when lightning, thunder, strong wind and rain happen at the same time...
282569
ah ha my kinda question. lightning comes down only to a point above the strike point then a contacting point comes up from the strike point and connects with the down charge completing the circut. then the charge goes up and down several times. thats what causes the bright flash. here are some pages that will help.
283845
Clearing a few things up:\nlightning can go from cloud to ground, ground to cloud, or cloud to cloud.\nThe charge buildup that causes the lightning is focused in the cloud and on the ground.  But the lightning doesn't go from one to the other and just stop.  The difference in charge becomes large enough to cause a "jump" between the air and ground (or whatever the source/target).  This is like an arc in an electrical current... the voltage builds up to a point where the inhibition of the atmosphere (or wire covering) aren't enough to contain it, cuasing the ions to jump from the one place to the other.  As an aside, lightning is caused by opposite charges building up.  Typical lightning is negative (negative charge flowing to positive charge).  Less common is positive lightning, which is much more powerful/damaging.  The -/+ ions flow to the opposite charge.  Lightning starts wth a stepped leader of particles "reaching out" from the source AND target until a path of low enough resistance is found at which time the lightning strikes.  The path is set and large amounts of ions flow along the path until the charge difference/voltage decreases to a point at which the resistance restrains the flow again.\nThe lightning doesn't stop at the ground when coming from the cloud... it keeps spreading out until the charge difference is neutralized/the energy dissipated.  This can lead to lightning ions travelling large distances into the ground (or along underground phone lines and such).\n\nTired of me talking?  Looking for a point?\nThe point is that you can be hit in the sky!  Partciles of air aren't directly grounded either, but the lightning goes through them.  Humans are less resistant than air (that's why being the tallest object in a thunderstorm is dangerous), so in theory you are the easier path.  And just because you aren't grounded doesn't mean you don't get burned as the lightning passes through you (just as it would if you were grounded).\n\nDoubt the danger is rediculously extreme, but its a threat.
665153
The exact reason is not proven, but suspected that it is because precipitation falls to the ground carrying electrons, and the lightning occurs when the difference in charges between the clouds and the ground even out, and the electrons jump back to the clouds.  That is why lightning is said to go from ground to the clouds.
619415
From a distance, lightning will come before the thunder.  But at the point of the bolt, they occur at the same time.\n\nFrom the source below:\n"Actually, they do occur at the same time. The time difference that you sense is due to the way sound and light travel. Light travels extremely fast (300,000,000 m/s). In fact, it is faster than anything else. Sound travels at a measly 343 m/s through air. Therefore we can see light in an instant, but it takes a while to hear thunder."
936252
I have heard that before too, but as a meteorologist...I can say I have never found any scientific basis for that theory.\n\nHowever, I was working for the National Weather Service about 20 years ago when I got struck.  After I returned to work, all the staff gave me a hard time about that fact that now that I had been struck once, I was more likely to be struck again.\n\nAfter my stint with NWS, I was a storm chaser for 10 years, and in those 10 years I never even came close.  In fact, in the last 20 years I have come close only once...and that was because I was stupid enough to be standing next to an outside light fixture as a thunderstorm was moving through.
1111845
The statement has little to actually do with lightning, especially these days.  It really applies to human nature and events.\n\nBefore the advent of tall buildings and lightning rods, it was rare for lightning to strike the same location twice; there were many likely targets.  While it could happen, it was outside the daily experience of most people, and back then, that's about all they had to work with.  \n\nThe statement came to mean any event that rarely happened twice to the same person or group; like a previous poster said, winning the lottery twice, or any other event that's rare enough the first time, and extremely unlikely the second.
447253
it happens more frequently then you think. lightening often strikes the same place
28574
Lightning can happen when it snows.  The reason lighting happens is because the air in the clouds is negatively charged compared to the ground (making the clouds (-) and the gorund (+)).  The clouds usally get this way in dry conditions cause there is less moisture in the air to stop air molecules from rubbing up against one another and creating excess energy (a negative charge).  Well since the clouds are (-) it needs a way of getting rid of some energy so it can be neutral (n).  It does this by passing some energy in to the (+)  ground, which also want to be (n).  This passing of energy rips throught the (n) air in between the (-) clouds and the(+) ground and creats the effect of lightning.  Now the reason it usually doesn't happen when it snow is because of the moisture in the air being so high, but everyonce in a while the air become dry enough when it snow to produce lightning.
501528
Yes, it does. For one thing, I've seen it hit the ocean and cause a scatter/ripple effect in the water. It was actually very cool.\n\nSecondly, why do you think people always tell you to get out of the water when there is a lightening storm overhead?
549998
Yes and no.  While if there's lightning there's going to be thunder, it could be occurring so far up or away that you might see it but just not be able to hear the thunder.
417045
Or did you mean when light hits an object, rather than lightning?\n\nIn this case, it really depends on the composition of the object and the wavelength of the light.  Generally, some of the light is absorbed into the object in the form of energy, and some of it is reflected back.  For example, a white light shone onto a red postbox will absorb every colour within the white light except for the red wavelengths which will reflect and be seen, hence it appearing red.
497622
It doesn't just happen all of a sudden, as OBIWAUGH pointed out, the movement of air caused by the storm causes the clouds to acquire a polarized electrical charge that by nature has to release its energy.\nThat energy is the lightning bolt reaching out to an oppositely charged object to balance the energy.
429745
The flash of a lightning strike and resulting thunder occur at roughly the same time. But light travels at 186,000 miles in a second, almost a million times the speed of sound. Sound travels at the slower speed of one-fifth of a mile in the same time. So the flash of lightning is seen before thunder is heard. By counting the seconds between the flash and the thunder and dividing by 5, you can estimate your distance from the strike
688698
On one can tell lighting is different every time.\nJust like it does not hit the same place two times in a row.
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..