lightning can happen in the middle of a cloud, between two clouds, or between a cloud and the ground.
the lightning strike is the visible result of an electric discharge caused by the contact between two electrically charged regions. there's a whole process that happens before what we call a lightning strike that we don't get to see !
what makes a cloud a thundercloud is that natural turbulences within the cloud's anatomy cause an uneven distribution of electric charge. an upward air draft in the center of the cloud causes positive electric charges to end up in the upper part of the cloud, and negative electric charge in the lower part.
this strong negative electric energy on the base of the cloud actually affects the electric charges on the ground underneath it, despite a great distance separating them ! this negative charge pushes back the negative charge deeper into the ground (same polarity push each other back - think of a magnet !) creating an electric charge imbalance and a surplus of positive electric charge on the ground.
these two energy regions of opposite polarities create an electric field between them !
the stronger the negative charge is on the base of the thundercloud, the stronger the opposite charge on the ground surface is, and the higher the electrical field gets.
a channel of ionized (positively or negatively charged) air is initiated between those two oppositely charged regions. this is called a leader. once that leader connects the two regions, everything accelerates inside it...
and BOOM !!
lightning !!
the field is strongest on tall objects connected to the ground, since their tops are closest to the base of the thundercloud- that's why you can't hide under trees during a storm !! the leader is more likely to connect with those areas when it comes down !!!
- lightning can also occur during volcanic eruptions. the particles ejected by the volcano collide in the cloud and redistribute the positive and negative energy kind of like a thunderstorm does !
- lightning generates tiny radio frequency pulses ! they sound like this. it's those radio frequency pulses that online maps like https://www.lightningmaps.org use to record in real-time lightning strikes accross the globe !
- lightning also happens in space !
- lightning happens way more often in the equator !
- lightning medicine is called keraunomedicine, from the greek word keraunos !
- after a lightning strike, you can get a lichtenberg figure !
- sometimes after getting struck by lightning people get temporarily really good at math or languages or music
- lightning can be loosely synchronized in thunderstorms tens or hundreds of kilometers apart !
