My weekly weather question turned out to be a tough one. Lightning can occur without a thunderstorm. There are a couple of other ways lightning can be generated, what are they?  On a few occasions lightning has been observed within giant steam and debris clouds from erupting volcanoes. Lightning and miniature tornado-like vortices were observed during the spectacular volcanic birth of the island Surtsey near Iceland. The same kind of lightning event occurred above Mt. St. Helens during its major eruotions in the early 1980’s. Giant plumes of smoke from large forest fires also have been known to produce lightning, although these smoke clouds were probably in the process of turning into regular thunderstorms. In the western U.S. most forest fires are started by lightning. Sometimes the heat from the intense fires trigger new thunderstorms, which in turn produce more lightning. This is called a feedback loop.

The next weekly quiz starts on Monday. Please give it a try.