Connie du Vall, age 12, of Mount Vernon., Wash., for her question:

How hot is a flash of lightning?

The more powerful flashes of lightning, it is estimated, may be as hot as 30,000 centigrade degrees. This is 10 times hotter than the temperature needed for a bar of iron to boil away as vapor. Part of this seething energy is unleashed when lightning strikes an object on the earth.

Sensible people use every means to protect themselves from the real dangers that lurk in the flashing lightning of a thunderstorm. Buildings, large and small, should be fitted with rods, called lightning rods, to attract the flashea and guide their searing energy safely down into the ground.