Why do some lighting strikes go across and some go down?

Question

i was watching a rain storm and some lighting strikes went across??

is there a difference between the 2

Answer 1

Along with the other poster's answers, there's also Cloud to Air lightning.  

Cloud to Ground is affectionately referred to as "CG" lightning.  I'm not sure I've heard the others referred to with abbreviations, though.

Answer 2

I'd like to know the answer myself! Thank you for asking!                 I am no scientist, by any means! the only thing that I can think of , is that lightning strikes where the most possitive charges are, so may be at the time of the flash, it was in the clouds more than the ground. Don't know, just guessing!?

Answer 3

Some jump from cloud to cloud, others jump from ground to cloud and others from cloud to ground.

The idea is the same as when you shuffle your feet across the carpet and touch something metal.  It is called static electricity.

I've gotten shocks from scooting across the seat of my car and then touching the car metal.  Since the car is on four rubber tires, it is not "grounded" (meaning it is not touching the earth).  So, the difference between my body's accumulation of static electricity and that of the car's is enough for me to get a shock.

That is somewhat the same as two clouds -- one picked-up static electricity that is different than the charge held by the other.  The spark jumped from one cloud to another.

Answer 4

Lightning discharges may occur between areas of cloud having different negative/positive potentials without contacting the ground. These are most common between the uppermost and lowermost reaches of a given thunderstorm. This lightning can sometimes be observed at great distances at night as so-called "heat lightning". In such instances, the observer may see only a flash of light without thunder. (By the way, the "heat" portion of the term is just a folk term, as result of locally-experienced warmth and the distant lightning flashes.)

Another terminology used for cloud-cloud or cloud-cloud-ground lightning is "Anvil Crawler", due to the habit of the positive charge typically originating from beneath or within the uppermost part of a cloud and scrambling through the upper cloud layers to lower, negative charged clouds of a thunderstorm, normally generating multiple branch strokes which are dramatic to witness. These are usually seen as a thunderstorm passes over you or begins to decay.