Moving particles in the clouds build up static electricity. This same static electricity can be observed when walking on synthetic carpet and touching a metal object or another person.
This build up of charge eventually gets great enough so that it is released as electricity back to the Earth. This causes surrounding gasses to become ionized and thus becomes plasma (one of the states of matter).
Electricity is the transfer of electrons between molecules; for example, a battery sends these tiny particles from its negative end to its positive end. If an electrical current does not have a sufficient "load," or job to perform, along its path then it short-circuits and makes a popping noise accompanied by intense heat (which was the electrical energy that went unused and had to be disposed of somehow). The earth and its atmosphere are essentially a gigantic battery; when a path is formed in the air which can carry a current, the battery shorts and we call the resulting flash lightning.
To answer the original question, however, it can actually start in either the ground or a cloud. It should also be noted that the above explanation is somewhat oversimplified. For more details, see the related Wikipedia link.
There are two different kinds of lightning. Usually, you see the one in a storm. That one is started by static. It's like rubbing your feet against the carpet then touching someone; the static from it jumps from one object to another. The other kind of lightning is called heat lightning. It starts from when cold weather and warm weather collide. Heat lightning you usually do not see in storms. That is how lightning starts.
When strong wind blows across the surface of the planet, the billions of molecules wind consists of (oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen molecules, some of the molecules our air consist of, for example) rub against the objects that stand on this surface, like trees, the wind takes away some of the electrons that are on these objects, causing the ground and the objects on it to become positively charged. Then, the wind sweeps the electrons up into the air, 'giving' them to the cloud, causing the bottom half of the cloud to become negatively charged. As the charges build up inside the cloud, the potential energy starts rising and rising. Once the energy gathered by this process builds up to a point where it is strong enough to go straight through the air, the charge will try to get to the point where there is the lowest potential energy, which in this case was the positively charged ground. All the charge rushes to the ground as fast as it can, which will result in what we call 'lightning'.
Lightning starts high up in the sky when there are huge thunderclouds rolling over the sky. The currents that flow through them get charged with electricity.
Lightning starts because ,First rain starts then you will hear thunder but see lightning.
Dog
It is called a lightning rod and it protects buildings from lightning by guiding the lightning into the ground.
The ground
the sheet lightning is more mild then the ball lightning
A storm that produces lightning is called a thunderstorm or a lightning storm. Lightning can be stationary or move around.
ligtning po.. its true..
Blitz - short for Blitzkrieg - lightning strike. Answer: The Blitz had nothing to do with blitzkrieg. The term "Blitz" was originated by the British press (maybe because, like lightning, it came from the sky without real warning and caused damage).
First of all,Fire started when lightning struck(:dat is all people
It originated in the late 1970s when Billy got struck by lightning (joke). The expression was used in Book 2 of the Gateway Trilogy.
A lightning bolt A lightning leader A lightning strike A lightning stroke
It is called a lightning rod and it protects buildings from lightning by guiding the lightning into the ground.
The ground
you can see lightning
the sheet lightning is more mild then the ball lightning
the homonyn for lightning is lightening the homonyn for lightning is lightening
Sheet lightning is Cloud to Cloud where Lightning is Cloud to Ground.
Heat lightning is just ordinary lightning that is too far away for you to hear the thunder.
Protect the high buildings, structures from lightning using lightning spike, lightning mast , earth wire.