Every second of every da ver the world, there are more than 100 htning bolts. about ten million lightning bolts one reason but can also frighten us We have good Lightning 100 people in the It states and of lightning. Every and another 300 are injured. from lightning, that of all the people who die from than are en. Lightning is the main cause of forest fires, it starts more 9,000 each year. Scientists do not know exactly Lightning is electricity inside a cloud. that the electricity inside what makes this electricity. But they know From this extremely strong can be as much as 100 million volts. bright light, comes down electricity, a lightning bolt, like a streak of degrees Fahrenheit from the lts temperature can reach 50,000 five times the within a sky. That's almost few millionths of a second. temperature on the sun's surface. The lightning bolt is very quick. It can speed of 87,000 miles per second. A rocket traveling at this speed reach the moon in 2.5 seconds. With the lightning bolt, we would sound of hot air exploding hear thunder, which is the Lightning and happen exactly the same time, but we see because light travels a million times than sound. Lightning often strikes tall buildings. However, many buildings have lightning rods to protect them from lightning. When lightning strikes, the electricity goes safely down the metal rod to the ground. Benjamin Franklin, the American statesman, invented the lightning rod in 1760. That is why buildings like the Empire State Building in New York City are safe. Lightning may hit this building as many as twelve times in twenty minutes and as often as 500 times a year. Airplanes are not as easy to protect as buildings, and accidents do happen. In 1963, a Boeing 707 jet was hit by lightning and crashed. Eighty-one people died. If you see thunder and lightning coming, here are some things you can do to protect yourself. Go inside a house, get into a car, or go under a bridge. If you cannot find shelter, go to the lowest point on the 103 Chapter 9 Lightning