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You are here: Home / Universe / How Big Is a Lightning Bolt?

How Big Is a Lightning Bolt?

June 30, 2020 by Karen Hill

The bright flashes of lightning you see streaking across the sky are usually about 300 feet long, but some very powerful bolts may be over five miles long.

And lightning bolts can streak to the ground from eight miles in the air, or leap between two clouds 20 miles apart.

A lightning bolt may look more than a few feet wide, but what you see when you look at a lightning bolt isn’t the bolt itself, but the glowing air along its path. A lightning bolt is usally just a quarter-inch or so in width!

Household appliances, which run on 115 volts of electricity, can kill or badly shock a person, but lightning bolts may contain over 100 million volts!

Related Facts

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  • How Many Times Does Lightning Strike Around the World Each Day and How Hot Is a Bolt of Lightning?
  • How Hot Is A Lightning Bolt?
  • What Is Ball Lightning, What Causes Ball Lightning, and Where Does the Electrical Phenomenon Come From?
  • When Lightning Strikes Water Do All the Fish Die and What Happens When Lightning Strikes a Ship at Sea?
  • Who invented the screwdriver to bolt plates of armor together for knights in the Middle Ages?

Filed Under: Universe

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

Previous Post: « What Is the Depth of the Earth from Its Surface to Its Core?
Next Post: How Do Lightning Rods Work? »

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