What is the cause of lightning?

Answer 1

Different charges on the ground and the bottom of a cloud The build up of static charges
The buildup of charge in a cloud.

Answer 2

Lightning is caused by the buildup of electrical charges in clouds during a thunderstorm. When the difference in charges becomes large enough, a rapid discharge of electricity occurs between the clouds or between the clouds and the ground, producing the visible bolt of lightning.

Answer 3

Lightning occurs as a discharge of energy from charged air masses in clouds, and can be from cloud to cloud or from a cloud to the ground.

How Lightning Occurs

The first process in the generation of lightning is the forcible separation of positive and negative charges within a cloud or air. The mechanism by which this happens is still the subject of research, but one widely accepted theory is the polarization mechanism. This mechanism has two components: the first is that falling droplets of ice and rain become electrically polarized as they fall through the atmosphere's natural electric field, and the second is that colliding ice particles become charged by electrostatic induction. Once charged, by whatever mechanism, work is performed as the opposite charges are driven apart and energy is stored in the electric fields between them. The positively charged crystals tend to rise to the top, causing the cloud top to build up a positive charge, and the negatively charged crystals and hailstones drop to the middle and bottom layers of the cloud, building up a negative charge. Cloud-to-cloud lightning can appear at this point.

Cloud-to-ground lightning is less common. It occurs when a "step leader" from a cloud ionizes a path for the discharge of large electrostatic charges. Negative charges usually migrate from a cloud to the ground and positive charges from the ground to a cloud, and they can involve many different areas in the cloud at once.

Cumulonimbus clouds that do not produce enough ice crystals usually fail to produce enough charge separation to cause lightning.

Depending on the medium, lightning can travel up to 75 km/sec, so even though it creates light it is a release of energy, so it doesn't travel at the speed of light.
Through friction in the clouds

particles rub together creating an electrical charge in the clouds.

Answer 4

In an electrical storm, the storm clouds are charged like giant capacitors in the sky. The upper portion of the cloud is positive and the lower portion is negative. How the cloud acquires this charge is still not agreed upon within the scientific community, n the process of the water cycle, moisture can accumulate in the atmosphere. This accumulation is what we see as a cloud. Interestingly, clouds can contain millions upon millions of water droplets and ice suspended in the air. As the process of evaporation and condensation continues, these droplets collide other moisture that is in the process of condensing as it rises. Also, the rising moisture may collide with ice or sleet that is in the process of falling to the earth or located in the lower portion of the cloud. The importance of these collisions is that electrons are knocked off of the rising moisture, thus creating a charge separation. The newly knocked-off electrons gather at the lower portion of the cloud, giving it a negative charge. The rising moisture that has just lost an electron carries a positive charge to the top of the cloud. Beyond the collisions, freezing plays an important role. As the rising moisture encounters colder temperatures in the upper cloud regions and begins to freeze, the frozen portion becomes negatively charged and the unfrozen droplets become positively charged. At this point, rising air currents have the ability to remove the positively charged droplets from the ice and carry them to the top of the cloud. The remaining frozen portion would likely fall to the lower portion of the cloud or continue on to the ground. Combining the collisions with the freezing, we can begin to understand how a cloud may acquire the extreme charge separation that is required for a lightning strike. When there is a charge separation in a cloud, there is also an electric field that is associated with the separation. Like the cloud, this field is negative in the lower region and positive in the upper region.

Answer 5

ok, not exactly sure if this is exact but this is what I know:

in the clouds when it's going to rain, at the top of the clouds there are positive electrons and the bottom of the clouds have negative electrons. So then something with them pushing against each other, then since the bottom cloud part is negative, it attracts the earth ( positive) and creates some ions (negatives) which is the lightning.

That's all I know, not sure if I explained it properly, but hope this helps though.!!! :)

Answer 6

What causes lightning?Lightning is produced in thunderstorms when liquid and ice particles above the freezing level collide, and build up large electrical fields in the clouds. Once these electric fields become large enough, a giant "spark" occurs between them (or between them and the ground) like static electricity, reducing the charge separation. The lightning spark can occur between clouds, between the cloud and air, or between the cloud and ground.

As seen in the photo above, cloud-to-ground lightning usually occurs near the boundary between the updraft region (where the darkest) clouds are, and the downdraft/raining region (with the lighter, fuzzy appearance). Sometimes, however, the lightning bolt can come out of the side of the storm, and strike a location miles away, seemingly coming out of the clear blue sky.

As long as a thunderstorm continues to produce lightning, you know that the storm still has active updrafts and is still producing precipitation. The temperature inside a lightning bolt can reach 50,000 degrees F, hotter than the surface of the sun. Objects that are struck by lightning can catch on fire, but since the flash is so brief, objects can also show little or no evidence of burning at all.(page last updated 11/26/2010)

Answer 7

Lightning is produced when liquid and ice particles above the freezing level collide and build up large electrical fields (electricity) in the clouds. Once these electric fields become large enough, a giant electrical spark occurs between them, like static electricity, reducing the charge separation. The lightning spark can occur between clouds, between the cloud and air, or between the cloud and the ground.

Answer 8

Lightening strikes are caused by electricity. When air rubs together it causes friction, then the friction causes electricity, or lightening.