雷电是如何形成的，又是什么原因造成的?

风暴云中有许多微小的颗粒，这些颗粒被称为水成物。这些是冰晶的微小颗粒。就像你在头上摩擦一个气球，它就会因为静电而粘在墙上一样，当水流星一起反弹时，它们会相互摩擦电荷。这使得电荷在云中上下移动。这就在云层中产生了电荷的差异，从而产生了电场。其结果是，地球的电荷与云的不同。当电荷差变得足够大时，最终空气的绝缘就会破裂，你就会遭到雷击。一道闪电携带着10亿到100亿焦耳的能量，这些能量足以制作10万片吐司!闪电足以将周围的空气加热到大约3万摄氏度——这大约是太阳表面温度的6倍。当你把东西弄得这么热的时候，气体分子会变得非常兴奋，以至于你把它们撕成碎片。 The electrons in the gas molecules jump to a very high energy level and then jump back again to a normal energy level. When they do that, they give out light. The light that they spray out is what you see as a flash of lightning. The sudden extreme heating of the air causes a compression wave, like clapping your hands together, around the lightning bolt, and that's what slowly propagates to you as a roll of thunder. As light travels much faster than sound waves, that's why you see the lightning first and then you hear the thunder.