Lightning storms in Southern England
Photos I took at around 4:00
Earlier this morning, southern England experienced 29,000 flashes of lightning (both cloud-to-cloud and forked), the Met Office reported.
These are confirmed to have been caused by intense heat during the day and atmospheric disturbance high in the atmosphere
So how does the heat cause storms?
For those who are not really into weather and/or don't know this, heated air always rises over the cold due to the temperature gradient between them. Because of the sudden spell of heat yesterday, the hot air rapidly rose (more heat=more energy to move), moving and causing colder ice fragments high up in the atmosphere to collide with each other. This causes an electrical charge through this disturbance.
While this is happening, the air that rose cools as the higher you get the colder it is. The masses of air condenses into cumulonimbus clouds which are often appropriately dubbed as storm clouds. The charged particles continue to collide as the cloud grows
Eventually that stored energy is released as electrical lightning.












