>>42497171>Lightnings fall for a second at bestMuch less. A typical individual stroke never lasts much longer than 50 millionths of a second. Core temperatures of the plasma channel can exceed 50,000 degrees. The temperature is so high, that even though it exists for such a brief amount of time, it imparts enough thermal energy into its surroundings to ionize the gas it passes through, instantly evaporate nearby water, set flammables ablaze, and expand the surrounding air fast enough to create the thunderous shockwave we are all familiar with. And then it take several hundred thousandths of a second for the superheated plasma channel to dissipate all its heat into the surrounding air. Lightning is an incredibly powerful force of nature.
