Science Fact of the Week 4 - Lightning

This week's fact of the week is in fact a series of shocking revelations about lightning!

• Did you know that a lightning bolt generates temperatures five times hotter than those found at the sun's surface!
  
• In addition, lightning strikes somewhere on the surface of the earth about 100 times every second.


• Each flash contains about one billion volts of electricity. That's enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for three months.
  
• In the United States alone, lightning sets 10,000 forest fires and causes $100 million in property damage every year.
  
• Between 1940 and 1991, it killed 8,316 people in the U.S.


• Today the average number of lightning-related deaths in the U.S. is 80 a year.
  
• Not everyone who is struck by lightning dies.

To find out more about lightning click here.