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Strikes More Than Once
A single flash of lightning seldom drains a storm cloud of its energy. Repeated strokes down the same channel are common, and dozens can occur in one second. If it could be tamed, a prolonged storm might create enough electricity to power a large city for several days. Even as a thunderstorm reaches violent maturity, it starts to die. The downdraft initially shares the circulation with the sustaining updraft, then strangles it.
As the updraft is separated from converging low-level winds, the disturbance loses moisture and head energy. Precipitation first weakens, then stops, and the cold downdraft ceases.
In their menacing advance, thunderstorms sometimes bend and uproot trees, flatten crops, and splinter buildings.
Paradoxically, they also bring blessings - abundant rainfall and valuable fertilizer. Lightning frees nitrogen from the air, and rain washes it into the soil at the rate of a hundred million tons a year.
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