How Hot Is Lightning?
Air is a very poor conductor of electricity and gets extremely hot when lightning passes through it. In fact, lightning can heat the air it passes through to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5 times hotter than the surface of the sun).
conductor of electricity
Voltage drop is the decrease of electrical potential along the path of a current flowing in an electrical circuit. Voltage drops in the internal resistance of the source, across conductors, across contacts, and across connectors are undesirable because some of the energy supplied is dissipated.
Is anything hotter than lightning?
The air around a stroke of lightning can peak at 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit, while the surface of the sun is around 11,000 degrees. Meanwhile, magma can reach temperatures near 2,100 degrees. Earth’s air is a very poor conductor of electricity, and so it gets very hot when lightning passes through it.
