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with April Holladay
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Answers about:  

_   Lightning
_ Clouds

Top 10 questions  

1

 Cause of  lightning

2

 Where lightning hits

3

 Hurricane spin

4

 How hot is lightning

5

 Jupiter's surface

6

 How rainbows form

7

 Ball lightning

8

 Hurricane energy

9

 Lightning hits a tornado
10  Orange night skies

Current Column:  A saintly light

st elmo's fire

Why would a lightning-struck tree glow after being hit? It is not on fire and does not give off heat, but glows. 

It was a dark and stormy night.  Chris emails he was walking in the woods  "a little after a thunderstorm" when he noticed the tree.  The tree, shattered by an earlier lightning stroke, stabbed the night like a broken pike.  An eerie glow extended ... Click to continue

Why cyclones spin clockwise

Cyclone Heta rotates clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. Photo courtesy of NASA.Cyclone Heta rotates clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. Photo courtesy of NASA.

Continued from Why hurricanes spin counterclockwise (and cyclones clockwise):

It's much the same in the Southern Hemisphere.  Suppose the cyclone's low pressure area is off the coast of Samoa in the South Pacific at the spot marked 'L' in the diagram.  Higher pressure air from the north, west, east and south will move towards the low pressure L as depicted by the white arrows.  But the air to the south moves slower than the low pressure area (since it's closer to the pole), and lags to the west.  Moreover, the air to the north moves faster, and speeds ahead to the east.  The different speeds cause the air to circulate clockwise about the low.

 

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