Because human beings are terrestrial and most of their possessions are on the Earth where lightning can damage or destroy them, cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning is the most studied and best understood of the three types, even though in-cloud (IC) and cloud-to-cloud (CC) are more common types of lightning. Lightning's relative unpredictability limits a complete explanation of how or why it occurs, even after hundreds of years of scientific investigation. When the two connect, an electrical current flows as negative charges fly down the channel towards earth and a visible flash of lightning streaks upward at some 200,000,000 mph (300,000,000 kph), transferring electricity as lightning in the process.

Ribbon lightning occurs in thunderstorms with high cross winds and multiple return strokes. The wind will blow each successive return stroke slightly to one side of the previous return stroke, causing a ribbon effect. [95] Ribbon lightning - ordinary cloud-to-ground lightning that appears to be spread horizontally into a ribbon of parallel luminous streaks when a very strong wind is blowing at right angles to the observer's line of sight.South America is a lightning hotspot, taking out the record for the longest flash going to a storm that developed over Uruguay and northern Argentina in June 2020. Thunderstorms start in clouds. Inside a storm cloud, bits of ice move up and down and bump into each other. And just like when you rub a balloon this builds up an electric charge…

McQueen is smiling wide with his giant grin! He’s probably daydreaming about winning the Piston Cup. This refers to a discharge that jumps from a cloud into clear air and terminates abruptly – indeed, CG lightning contains CA lightning via the branches that extend from the main channel into the mid-air. However, the most dramatic examples occur when long, bright lightning channels extend from the sides of cumulonimbus clouds. Ground-to-Cloud (GC) Lightning Cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning is a lightning discharge between a thundercloud and the ground. It is initiated by a stepped leader moving down from the cloud, which is met by a streamer moving up from the ground. While the previous image was a bit more intense, we’re bringing things down a few notches for a more relaxed image once more. To show this, you could use details as simple as some smoke coming from his tires to show that he’s traveling at high speeds. What other details can you think of?As negatively charged leaders approach, increasing the localized electric field strength, grounded objects already experiencing corona discharge will exceed a threshold and form upward streamers. Staccato lightning is a CG lightning strike, a short-duration stroke that often appears as a single very bright flash with considerable branching. A typical cloud-to-ground lightning bolt begins when a step-like series of negative charges, called a stepped leader, races downward from the bottom of a storm cloud toward the Earth along a channel at about 200,000 mph (300,000 kph). Each of these segments is about 150 feet (46 meters) long. The strike lasted around 17 seconds, or about 0.37 seconds longer than a previous flash in Argentina a year earlier. Lightning is looking very competitive in this next image again. That would again make it seem like he may be in an intense race, and that opens up so many possibilities.