Question

Who discovered that thunderstorms give out electricity? Can you explain this process scientifically?

Answer 1

Benjamin Franklin Discovered Electricity with Kite. The American legend likely sprang from an article Franklin wrote for the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1752 describing a theoretical kite-lightning experiment. Supposedly, the genius of yore picked a stormy day to fly a silken kite, complete with a lightning rod and a key dangling on the end of the string. When the lightning struck the kite, the powerful bolt traveled down the string and charged the metal key. Franklin then touched the key and got zapped, thus proving the existence of electricity.

explain this process scientifically?

Most thunderstorms form by a cycle that has three stages: the cumulus stage, mature stage, and dissipating stage.

Cumulus Stage
The sun heats the Earth's surface during the day. The heat on the surface and warms the air around it. Since warm air is lighter than cool air, it starts to rise (known as an updraft). If the air is moist, then the warm air condenses into a cumulus cloud. The cloud will continue to grow as long as warm air below it continues to rise.

Mature Stage
When the cumulus cloud becomes very large, the water in it becomes large and heavy. Raindrops start to fall through the cloud when the rising air can no longer hold them up. Meanwhile, cool dry air starts to enter the cloud. Because cool air is heavier than warm air, it starts to descend in the cloud (known as a downdraft). The downdraft pulls the heavy water downward, making rain.

This cloud has become a cumulonimbus cloud because it has an updraft, a downdraft, and rain. Thunder and lightning start to occur, as well as heavy rain. The cumulonimbus is now a thunderstorm cell.

Dissipating Stage
After about 30 minutes, the thunderstorm begins to dissipate. This occurs when the downdrafts in the cloud begins to dominate over the updraft. Since warm moist air can no longer rise, cloud droplets can no longer form. The storm dies out with light rain as the cloud disappears from bottom to top.

The whole process takes about one hour for an ordinary thunderstorm. Supercell thunderstorms are much larger, more powerful, and last for several hours.

Supercell thunderstorms occur when very strong updrafts are balanced by downdrafts. This can allow the storm to persist for many hours. In a supercell, a moist, unstable body of warm air may be forced to rise by an approaching cold front..

http://www.eo.ucar.edu/kids/dangerwx/tstorm4.htm

http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/Atmosphere/tstorm/tstorm_formation.html