Lightning and Thunder

Have you ever been looking out your window when the sky turns a deep, sleepy gray. Everything gets quiet, even the birds stop singing. Then suddenly, FLASH. A brilliant, zig-zagging line of light zips across the clouds, making the whole world bright white for just a second. You might jump a little. After my bright hello, you start to hear a low grumble from far away. R-r-rumble... It gets closer and louder until, BOOM. The windows might shake a little with the big, booming sound. Don't worry, that's just my best friend saying hi too. That's me. I'm Lightning, and my big, booming voice is my best friend, Thunder. We always travel together. You see me first because I'm super fast, but you always hear him follow close behind, shouting his big, friendly hello to the world. We love putting on a show for you.

For a very, very long time, people didn't understand me and my friend Thunder. When we put on our flashy, noisy shows, they would get scared. They made up all kinds of stories to explain what was happening. Some people imagined that we were angry gods living up in the clouds, throwing sparkly spears down to the ground. Others thought we were playing a giant game of bowling, with me as the flashing lights of the bowling alley and Thunder as the sound of the pins crashing down. They were fun stories, but they weren't quite right. I wasn't an angry god, I was just a mystery waiting to be solved. Then, a very brave and very curious man named Benjamin Franklin started to wonder about me. He thought I seemed a lot like the little sparks of electricity he had seen in his workshop. He had an idea, a very daring one. On a stormy day in June of 1752, he went out with his son and flew a kite high into the storm clouds. Tied to the kite string was a metal key. As I danced around in the sky, a little bit of my energy traveled down the wet string to the key. He carefully brought his knuckle close to the key and ZAP. A tiny spark jumped to his hand. He had done it. He proved that I was a giant spark of electricity. I'm the same kind of energy that lights up your lamps and powers your television, just much, much bigger and wilder, living free in the sky.

My big flash and Thunder's loud rumble might seem a little wild, but I'm actually a big helper for the Earth. I'm not just here to look spectacular. I have a very important job to do. When I zip through the air, my powerful flash is so hot and energetic that it changes the air around me. I cook up a special kind of food for plants, a nutrient that they need to grow big and strong. You can't see it, but it's there. Then, when the rain starts to fall, it washes this yummy plant food out of the sky and down into the soil. The trees, flowers, and vegetables drink it all up with their roots, which helps them grow healthy, green, and strong. So, the next time you see my flash and hear Thunder's rumble from a safe spot inside your cozy home, you can wave. We're just putting on a show and helping the planet get a good meal. We remind everyone just how powerful and amazing nature can be.