Does lightening come from the ground first or the sky?

Question

I was told that lightening comes from the ground first, shots up to the sky, then comes back to the ground. I always thought it came from the sky then to the ground. I'm confused.

Answer 1

generally, i believe you are referring too the fact, that the clouds carry the negative charge, and the ground carries a positive charge. The bit about the ground is true, because as a negative charge comes down from a cloud, and positive charge rises to meet it. When it connects, it makes lightning. Look up discovery channel, they have lots of info there

Answer 2

Lightning is associated with thunder storms and is found throughout the cloud.
As a towering cumulus cloud develops, a large electrical charge separation builds up with in the cloud. Lightning results when this electrical charge becomes strong enough to jump from the cloud to ground,to another cloud,or to an opposite electrical charge within the same cloud.
Although the process that creates lightning is not fully understood,it is enhanced substantially when the cloud grows in height above the freezing level. As the outer boundaries of water droplets start to freeze, positive ions,or particles with a positive charge flow to the area of ice formation. This creates an outer shell which is positively charged and a center which is negatively charged.
When the interior freezes and expands, it shatters the outer shell.
The droplets can also be broken up by colliding with other particles. In either case the lighter pieces are then carried in the updrafts to the top of the cloud. The heavier negatively charged particles fall to the bottom of the cloud. This makes th top of th cloud to have a net positive charge while the lower part has a net negative charge. As the negative charge builds at the bottom of the cloud, it repels the negative charge on the earths surface. This leaves the area below the cloud with a positive charge. This positive charged area acts like a shadow that follows th cloud as it moves.
When the cloud has a very intense neg. charge at the base, it seeks to neutralize itself by discharging to a positive area.
This discharge is what we see as lightning. When it discharges it goes to the most accessible charge. This is usually within the cloud itself, or between the clouds. At times,however it goes from
the cloud to the ground.
Lightning begins when a neg charged pilot leader descends from the cloud. This leader forms a conductive path approx. eight inches in diameter and from 35 to 150 feet long.. At this point the electrons in the cloud begin to descend down the path. This recharges the path and causes additional leaders to extend earthward. These leaders are called stepped leaders (not ladders!) because they seek the most conductive path to the ground and may try several branches before the Best is located. As the path is extended the electrons from the cloud extend further downward. The final stepped leader takes place a few feet above the earth where it is met by a rising pos. flow from the surface. With the path completed, the positive ions ion the earth can now flow to the cloud and neutralize the the lower portion of the cloud. This upward flow is refereed to as the return stroke and because it energizes the air molecules and illuminates the path you see it as lightning.. Before the path dissipates, the first stroke is followed by additional strokes which further neutralize the neg. charges in the cloud. What appears to be a single lightning flash can actually be 3 or 4 strokes. The actual stroke of lightning takes less than 1/2 second to occur. and that includes the leaders and three or four return strokes.

The peak current in the channel can reach 10,000 amps and the air in the channel can be heated to a temp hotter than the surface of the sun.

Answer 3

tha sky. electricity will always find the fastest route to ground, so it usually hits trees, phone poles, etc. (tall things) or conductive things like people or metal. whatever will get it to ground fastest in it's path.
lightning happens in the sky and goes to ground, but it happens so fast it might look like it was the other way arround.

Answer 4

There are various types of lightning, actually (see source below). There are also cloud-to-air strikes, in-cloud (intra-cloud) strikes, etc.

In direct answer to your question, BOTH. It can be air-to-ground and also ground-to-air.

Have a look at this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning#Types_of_lightning

Answer 5

sky down to the closest tallest object that is not grounded

Answer 6

It can go:

Cloud to cloud
Ground to cloud
or Cloud to Ground.

Answer 7

the sky

Answer 8

at the most the sky

Answer 9

i am pretty sure it comes from the sky

Answer 10

lightning can travel in either direction. The direction is dictated by the distribution of electrons.