That would be cool.

Ok. Here's a question that I think I've asked hundreds of times in my life. Why is it that you never (almost never) get lightning during snowstorms?

It does happen sometimes, especially towards the front of the storm where the cold air meets the warmer air. It's just harder to see/ hear lightning and thunder because the snowflakes scatter the light/ sound more efficiently than rain drops.

I know it can happen occasionally, but it is most definitely far far less.

That is because it is easier to produce lightnight during the summer as opposed to winter. I don't remember why though.

http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/faq/faq_ltg.php

^That's a great site to learn about lightning, it even answers your question.


Does lightning happen during the winter?

Lightning occurs less frequently in the winter because there is not as much instability and moisture in the atmosphere as there is in the summer. These two ingredients work together to make convective storms that can produce lightning. Without instability and moisture, strong thunderstorms are unlikely.

During the winter, the land surface is cooler because there is not as much heating by the sun to warm it up. Without warm surface temperatures, the near-surface air wouldn't rise in the atmosphere very far. Thus, the kinds of deep (8-15 km deep) thunderstorms that develop in the summertime wouldn't develop.

Warm air holds more water vapor. And, when water vapor condenses into liquid water cloud drops, latent heat is released which fuels the thunderstorm. So, warm, moist air near the surface (and the proper conditions aloft to give you lots of instability) can result in deep convection, which may produce lightning discharges.

Clouds become electrified when strong updrafts (fueled by the instability and moisture) bring supercooled liquid water drops and ice crystals at temperatures less than freezing (0 deg C) together. In this environment, interactions between the ice crystals and supercooled water droplets produce electric charges. The exact mechanisms by which this charging happens remain unknown. The electrical charges build up until they are strong enough to overcome the resistance of the surrounding air. The breakdown of the electric fields produced by these charges is the lightning bolt.

But that's what I want to know!

I imagine it either has to do with temperature (though I thought the cooler temperatures would make the electricity conduct easier) or water being a better conductor of electricity in a liquid state.

that could not have happened billions of years ago, because if it did that means the moon was a hell of a lot closer than it is today. how close do you guess the moon was to earth when it was first formed?

I have a question.

The Sun is larger than the Earth, and thus has a stronger gravitational pull. It is strong enough to keep something as massive as the Earth in orbit. So why isn't it strong enough to pull all of us in?
Is it something to do with distance? So if gravity on Earth stopped, we'd all be pulled into the Sun?

i dont think that if there were no gravity that we would be pulled in. it doesnt even pull in mercury which is only 36 million miles away. in fact, since mercury was supposedly formed billions of years ago, it isn't even supposed to have a magnetic field at all.