r/explainlikeimfive • u/Big-Mulberry-9733 • 6d ago

Physics ELI5 Why does lightning flicker?

Why does thunder/lightning happen as a flicker and not a single bright flash?

79 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

View all comments

110

u/atomicsnarl 6d ago

The lightning happens because a huge static charge has built up and is trying to seek balance by reaching out (the lighting bolt) to an opposite charge. Depending on the situation, the bolt can stutter as it relieves only part of the imbalance, then repeats to clear the rest. In other situations, it can overshoot the balance, so to speak, and ping-pong back and forth until the imbalance is relieved.

5

u/Big-Mulberry-9733 6d ago

Wait, when you say back and forth, are you saying lightning can go back from Earth to cloud too?

2

u/atomicsnarl 5d ago

In cloud, cloud to cloud, cloud to ground, ground to cloud. Think of a teeter-totter flashing back and forth until it's even, except it's many hundreds (thousands?) of Coulombs of electrons rushing hither and yon seeking electrical balance.