Lightning facts

Lightning is approximately 54,000 degrees, that's six times hotter than the surface of the sun!

A lightning flash is usually no more than an inch wide.

What we see as a flash of lightning may actually be four different strokes in exactly the same place, one right after another. This is why lightning appears to flicker.

Lightning causes thunder. The lightning bolt you see is so hot that the air around it expands very quickly. Thunder is the sound of the expanding air.

You can tell how far away a storm is by observing thunder and lightning. Count the seconds between the lightning strike and the sound of the thunder and divide it by 5. This will tell you how far away the storm is in miles. For example, if you count 15 seconds between the lightning and thunder the storm is approximately three miles away.

Lightning hits the Empire State Building about 25 times a year.

Benjamin Franklin developed the lightning rod.