My Mind Melted! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Bishop

A bishop's ring is a ring of dust particles in the air that surrounds the sun and gives off a colored hue, variously described as bluish, reddish-brown and edged with yellow. A bishop's ring is normally seen after a strong volcanic eruption on earth.

Answer: Heat Index

The heat index uses the day's temperature and adds in the humidity for that day. Using both numbers, the heat index calculates what the temperature actually feels like for that day. For instance, if the temperature is 100 degrees outside and humidity is at 70%, the temperature outside would actually feel like it was 144 degrees.

Answer: Florida

St. Petersburg, Florida held the record of most consecutive days of sunshine with 768 days from February 9, 1967 to March 17, 1969. Yuma, Arizona has an average of 90% sunny days or 4,000 sunny hours per year. For the maximum amount of days in darkness, the South Pole has had 182 days of darkness and the North Pole has had 176 days of darkness.

Answer: Dog days of summer

The dog days of summer are normally between early July and mid August. The name of this weather phenomenon came about in Ancient Egypt when the Egyptians believed that the dog star, Sirius, which came up with the sun during the middle of the year added to the heat of the sun.

Answer: False

Lightning can and will strike the same person or the same place that it had struck previously. In one particular New York storm, lightning was recorded hitting the Empire State Building twelve times.

Answer: Latin

When lightning hits dry sand, the heat is intense enough that it melts the sand into a glassy tube. The tubes have been recorded to be anywhere from two inches across to one-hundred feet long. Inside, the tubes are glassy while outside the tubes are rough from sand adhesion. White tubes of fulgurite are uncommon. Most fulgurites found are black or tan in color.

Answer: True

A lightning bolt's temperature can be close to 54,000 degrees F (30,000 degrees C). A human can survive a lightning strike as long as the lightning does not pass through their heart or spinal column.

Answer: Glowing discharge that surrounds lightning

A corona envelope is the glowing discharge of lightning that can be as wide as 10 to 20 feet. The speed of lightning can be from 100 to 1000 miles per second. The length of a stroke of lightning can be as much as twenty miles long.

Answer: Volcanic eruption

A volcano in Indonesia, named Mount Tambora, erupted spewing billions of dust particles into the stratosphere. Because the dust entered the stratosphere, heavy winds carried the particles around the world. Unseasonal temperatures were found in Europe while snow and frost plagued the New England states of the USA.

Answer: Forked lightning

There are several different types of lightning:

Ball lightning is lightning shaped in a white or colored sphere that is only seen for a few seconds. Streak lightning is the most common form of lightning with just a streak of white passing from the sky to the ground.
Forked lightning is two lightning branches in the sky.
Sheet lightning is a sheet of lightning flashing in the sky.
Ribbon lightning is a swirl of lightning being blown by the wind.
Heat lightning is a flash of lightning seen on the horizon during hot weather.