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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

Hurricane spin speeds at various latitudes

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

It is easy to see how different rotational speeds at different latitudes cause a counterclockwise rotation, when we examine the speeds themselves. The latitude of Hurricane Ivan's low is about 29 degrees north; so, the low rotates west to east about 908 mph (1460 k/h).  Hurricane Ivan extends north to about 35 degrees north (about the latitude of Spartanburg, SC).  The air at this latitude spin about 852 mph (1370 k/h) — slower than the low.  Ivan sweeps south to about 24.5 degrees north; those air masses spin at about 945 mph (1520) — faster than the low. 

The diagram shows these two most northerly and most southerly air masses, and some points in between.  I subtracted the speed of the low (908 mph) from each of the W to E speeds, to give the speeds relative to the low.  The winds north of the low blow from east to west, as indicated by the little red arrows.  The winds south of the low blow from west to east, relative to the low.  The result is counterclockwise motion.  (To illustrate the concept, I read the latitudes off the figure and are, therefore, approximate.)

(Answered March 10, 2008)

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