Lightning Facts And Information - National Geographic

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What is lightning and what causes it?

Lightning is an electrical discharge caused by imbalances between storm clouds and the ground, or within the clouds themselves. Most occur within the clouds.

During a storm, colliding particles of rain, ice, or snow inside storm clouds increase the imbalance between storm clouds and the ground, and often negatively charge the lower reaches of storm clouds.

(Summer storms can strike suddenly. Here’s what causes them.)

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Objects on the ground, like steeples, trees, and Earth itself, become positively charged. That creates an imbalance that nature seeks to remedy by passing current between the two charges.

These flashes are extremely hot. They can heat the air around it to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit—five times hotter than the sun’s surface. This heat causes surrounding air to rapidly expand and vibrate, which creates the pealing thunder we hear a short time after seeing a flash.

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