Week 5

Description  Details

Discipline Literature

Assignment type : Essay

Description

For the forums in this class, we are going to engage in some “peer-learning.” This is where you all not only get to ask questions, but also provide the answers to the questions! I will be around to make sure your responses are correct and on-topic. I will be looking for everyone to ask a question on a topic you may be struggling with, or you don’t fully understand, or maybe want to confirm your understanding. Please make sure that your questions pertain to this week’s lessons. Topics for this week include the following: weather observations, weather data, weather forecasting, thunderstorms and severe weather.

Then respond to at least two other people’s posts with an answer. Make sure you provide a thorough response! This will make sure you understand while helping someone out at the same time! A win-win for everyone! 🙂

Student 1Severe thunderstorms with lightning and thunder are very mysterious. Our textbook states that lightning is a discharge of electricity in mature thunderstorms. Lightning is caused by clouds. I don’t understand this “The normal fair weather electric field of the atmosphere is characterized by a negatively charged surface and a positively charged upper atmosphere. For lightning to occur, separate regions containing opposite electrical charges must exist within a cumulonimbus cloud” (Ahrens, 2014, p.305) The theories state the scientific meaning by electrification of clouds but how does the electrical charge form? Is this similar to static electricity?

My brother was “struck” by lightning while in the Army out in the field during a major hurricane in North Carolina. He was working a radio and was in those glorious metal chairs and it knocked him back about 5 feet and his fatigues slightly melted to the chair but he was otherwise fine. I am now fascinated with how lightning travels and especially focused on the NOAA online statistics of U.S. lightning deaths in 2017 http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/fatalities.shtml which was 16 (NOAA.gov, 2017). NOAA also lists 5 ways lightning strikes people http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/struck.shtml: Direct Strike, Side Flash, Ground Current, Conduction and Streamers (NOAA.gov, 2017). Based on this information, could my brother have been struck by ground current and conduction or a combination of both?

Thanks for any responses in advance.

Kira

References

Ahrens. (2014). Essentials of Meteorology: An Invitation to the Atmosphere [Bookshelf Online] (7th ed.). Retrieved from https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781305439733

NOAA.gov. (2017). NWS Lightning Safety: Five Ways Lightning Strikes People. Retrieved January 4, 2018, from http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/struck.shtml

NOAA.gov. (2017). NWS Lightning Fatalities. Retrieved January 4, 2018, from http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/fatalities.shtm

Student 2 Class and Instructor

As always, I like to try and keep my first forum post in some relation to where I live or where I have been. I live in Kansas, and this week is fantastic for me as I am familiar with tornadoes. Whether it be a bad joke about the Wizard of Oz or volunteering for storm cleanup, these storms are present in my life.

Tornadoes are rotating columns of air that can range from a few yards to over a mile wide. They rotate clockwise in the southern hemisphere and counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere. We, in The United States average around 1200 tornadoes a year.

My question this week is about tornadoes. Can tornados from without a visible funnel? Explain.

My Best to You,

Jason D Bell

Format MLA

Academic Level: –

Volume of 2 pages (550 words)

Type of service: Custom writing

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