What causes lighting to strike between clouds or touch the earth?

Question

This is just something I was wondering about?

Please explain if you know why or have an idea why?

Answer 1

A lightning discharge occurs when there is a significant difference of electrical charge between a cloud to another cloud or the cloud and ground. A lightning bolt is then generated to neutralize that difference.

this is a short form if u want more than u can check it on

http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/primer/lightnin...

Answer 2

lightning doesnt come down from the sky, it comes up from the earth

Answer 3

Lightning is a discharge of built up electrical energy. The reason lightning is so powerful is because air is not a good conduit of electricity, so it takes a lot of energy to create an electrical current between two spots in the first place.

When lightning does finally discharge, it always takes the easiest path for energy to flow. Sometimes this is between the cloud and the ground and sometimes it is between two clouds. Extremely rarely lightning reaches above the clouds in a phenomenon known as Sprites or Blue Jets.