In all of God’s creation there is nothing more awesome than the blinding flash of light and the thunderous, deafening roar of a bolt of lightning. Through the ages man has watched this terrifying display and tried to understand its causes. The inspired Word of God, thousands of years ago, showed the connection between rain, lightning and thunder. Even today, while our theories about the physical causes give some clues to its origin and how it occurs, many questions remain unanswered.
The following are a few facts we do know about this part of God’s creation. A bolt of lightning is, in actuality, a channel of pulsing electrical energy 2 inches across, ranging in length from 200 feet to as long as 20 miles. It zips through the air at 90,000 miles per second (almost half the speed of light). Due to this speed, it is impossible to see that the bolt is traveling from the ground up and not from the sky down as most people believe. The air heated by this electrical discharge may be up to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit, five times the temperature of the sun. Most (almost three fourths) of the energy of a bolt of lightning is used while heating the air and producing the clap of thunder, but enough energy remains to deliver a full 125 million volts of electricity. With 100 lightning bolts every second (that’s 8 million per day), lightning produces more energy than all the electric generators in the United States.
How do thunderclouds get so charged with electricity? The process is complex and poorly understood, yet this force of nature is small when compared with the power of its Creator. Indeed, “the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork” (Psalms 19:1).
