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📘 A thundercloud separates charge as ice collides

Lightning begins inside a tall thunderstorm, where strong updrafts and downdrafts keep water, ice crystals, and soft hail moving through different temperature zones.

4
lessons
~20 min
to learn
Adults
level
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What you’ll learn

  1. Storm chargeExplain how storm motion and collisions separate charge and create an electric field.A thunderstorm separates charge in moving ice and water, while the resulting field acts across cloud and ground.
  2. Leaders and streamersDescribe how a stepped leader and upward streamers establish a lightning channel.The faint descending leader searches in steps until a ground streamer connects and selects a conductive route.
  3. Return strokeDistinguish the bright return stroke from leaders and explain repeated strokes.The return stroke is the brilliant upward current wave, and later dart leaders may trigger more strokes in the same channel.
  4. Kinds and limitsCompare lightning types and assemble the full formation sequence.Lightning can remain in clouds or reach the ground, but every flash is a rapid sequence governed by fields and charge.

Questions this course answers

What creates the electric field that drives a lightning discharge?

Charge separation creates an electric field, and a stronger separation generally means a stronger field.

What happens when an upward streamer connects with a stepped-leader branch?

The attachment event links the cloud and ground, allowing the large return-stroke current to follow the channel.

Which part produces most of the bright visible flash?

The rapid return stroke carries a large current through the established channel and produces most of its luminosity.

Why can one lightning flash appear to flicker?

Additional charge can send dart leaders down the existing channel, followed by more bright return strokes.

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