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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

Sunrays breaking through the clouds

View from Beaucatcher Ridge, NC.  
Photo courtesy of Grant W. Goodge and NOAA. When the sun is behind the clouds, and I see sunrays breaking through the clouds, are they really spreading out as they appear to be, or, is this just an illusion?  My opinion is that they are really parallel or very close to parallel and can be compared to lines of perspective in art. Ron, Marietta, Georgia

View from Beaucatcher Ridge, North Carolina. Photo courtesy of Grant W. Goodge and NOAA.

Your analysis, Ron, is right on target. The rays that shine through gaps in clouds do, indeed, form parallel columns of sunlight and cloud-shadowed darkness. The rays appear to spread out from the hidden Sun in the same fashion as a road seems to spread out from the horizon — perspective lines, but the rays are actually parallel.  Small specks of dust and particles scatter the sunlight, making the rays visible.  Here is a beautiful set of photographs, illustrating perspective lines and crepuscular rays.

Further Reading

Peterson First Guide to Clouds and Weather by Vincent J. Schaefer and John A. Jay

(Answered Feb. 18, 2008)

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