Reaching temperatures hotter than the surface of the sun, lightning is powerful and can be very dangerous.
"I've actually seen a house get hit by lightning and it goes through the electrical outlet and shoot across where the occupant was just lying on the couch,” said Charlie Moore of Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District.
Not only can it be dangerous to humans, but it can also rip apart trees and start fires. Lightning can strike ten miles away from where it is thundering or raining. Even when a storm is producing rain the trick is getting the lightning to match up with the rain. If there is a lot of lightning there can be a lot of fires.
“If one isn’t bad enough then we have the potential to have dozens. This is a bad case for us,” said Moore.
Sometimes it can rain right after a fire starts too. Or it can stop raining and then lightning strikes. Lightning forms from a difference in electrical charges within the storm cloud and the ground. A flash of lightning forms when the negative charges on the bottom of the cloud connects with the positive charges on the ground. Sometimes positive charges from the top of the cloud can connect with the ground too. These ones are usually more dangerous.
“I’ve been a chief for almost 30 years now and I've seen it all with respect to dry lightning, “ said Moore.
Some weather patterns are more conducive for dry lightning than others. If we have a lot of moisture to work with and the storms are moving slowly this lowers the fire risk. Fast moving storms do not have enough time to build enough moisture to rain and therefore increases the fire risk.
