GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) - Have you ever looked up to the sky during a storm to see a massive bolt of lightning and wondered how does that form? Well, the WITN WEATHER TEAM has you covered... STEP #1: ...

NORFOLK, Va. — Lightning is a common occurrence in Virginia and North Carolina, but have you ever wondered how and why it forms? Think of the formation of lightning as if you are playing with magnets.

Updrafts in thunderstorms help lift positive ions from near the surface to higher levels of the cloud. Negative ions build in the mid-levels due to the presence of graupel and ice crystals. This ...

LYNCHBURG, Va. (WSET) — How does lightning form in a thunderstorm? As a storm is developing, the bottom of the cloud holds raindrops. The top of the cloud is colder and below freezing. It contains ice ...

Superbolts of lightning are rare; they only make up about one percent of all lightning strikes. But they are incredibly strong; compared to the average lightning strike, which carries about 300 ...

How do harmless puffy white clouds grow into towering, potentially dangerous cumulonimbus thunderstorms? On their surface, clouds appear to be an odd contradiction of nature — light enough to float on ...

Our rainy spring has now stretched deep into July, so it's perhaps no surprise that we're also seeing more noisy, window-rattling thunderstorms accompanied by lightning. Just ask anyone who was at the ...

You bet it does. The greening of grass and other vegetation is a positive benefit of lightning. Plants require nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorous for good growth. Nitrogen is used in the greatest ...

KNOX COUNTY, Tenn. — East Tennessee saw some severe weather as we started the second week of May, which caught many by surprise. One threat we saw plenty of was lightning, and we were not alone.

Lightning happens when the negative charges (electrons) in the bottom of the cloud are attracted to the positive charges (protons) in the ground. The accumulation of electric charges has to be great ...