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What is dry lightning?
I have read about how a bushfire was started by dry lightning. This is on a day with no rain clouds around.
What is dry lightning?
2 Answers
- WRLv 51 decade agoFavourite answer
No wikipedia sources from me. Brush fires are started sometimes by dry thunderstorms. Dry thunderstorms usually occur in the western states. They usually produce less than .10in of rain.
Read More on dry thunderstorms. These are good links.
http://www.livescience.com/mysteries/070618_dry_ts...
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/fire_wx/dry.html
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/wdryzap.htm
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2007/s2888.htm
Source(s): meteorology student - 1 decade ago
Dry lightning is a term which is used in the United States to refer to thunderstorms which produce no rain that reaches the ground. The term is a technical misnomer since lightning is obviously not wet in any instance, and also because the thunderstorms which are so named actually do produce precipitation, although it does not reach the ground. Such thunderstorms are most common in the western portion of the United States during the summer. They occur when the rain produced by thunderstorms falls through a substantial layer of very dry air which evaporates the precipitation before it reaches the ground.
Dry lightning thunderstorms are notable for two other reasons: they are the most common natural cause of wildland fires, and they can produce strong gusty winds at the surface.
Source(s): Wikipedia, which is where you should have looked after checking past answers at Yahoo.