Why is there no lightning in certain places?

Question

I've lived in Northern California, South Korea and Alaska and none of those places have lightning. Ive lived in Virginia, Texas and Florida too and they all have lightning. Why do certain places not have any lightning ever? I'm thinking its because they're all off of the pacific ocean, and though that might be the reason, there must be the a reason why there isn't any lightning around the pacific.

Answer 1

Lightning is an electrical discharge.  An electric charge can build up anywhere but conditions might not be right for the charge to reach the point where lightning occurs.  

If you have ever walked across a carpet and picked up a charge then felt the shock when the charge was grounded, you have just been struck by a very small bolt of lightning.  If you were in a dark room when this happened yuo would have seen light from the spark.

The air itself can become charged, but would not reach the point where lightning would be significant.  To build up into a lightning strike the electric charge needs some help.  Tall clouds provide this help.  As air moves across the land electrons tend to be stolen from the land and stored inside the cloud.   As far as electric charge is concerned, a cloud tends to act as if the whole cloud was a single thing.  So when the lower part of a cloud picks up a negative charge, the charge is distributed thoughout the cloud.

A cloud being charged acts exactly like an electrical capacitor the only difference being the nature of the plates and the distance between the plates.  In a cloud, the negative plate is the bottom of the cloud and the positive plate is the ground.  Since the plates are separated by air, the charge continues to build up until the resistance of the air is less than the electric field of the cloud.  Lightning will then take place.