during a storm does the lightning come from the ground up,or from the sky down??

Answer 1

Ground Up.

Lightning does indeed come from the ground up, although our eyes find it hard to believe.

Lightning occurs when a current flows between areas of opposite electrical charge, within a cloud, between two clouds, or between the cloud and the ground. During the course of a thunderstorm, electrical charges in the cloud become seperated. A large area of negative charge builds up in the region of the cloud with temperatures near 5 degrees F (around 10-15 thousand feet). Positive charges build up on the ground and below the cloud base. Air is generally not a good conductor of electricity. When the attraction between the positive and negative charges grows strong enough to overcome the air's naturally high resistance to electrical flow, the negative charges begin zigzagging downward in a forked pattern. This is called the stepped leader. As the stepped leader gets closer to the ground, a streamer of positive charge moves upward toward it, climbing houses, trees, buildings, utility poles, etc..

When the stepped leader and the streamer come into contact, a powerful electrical current flows. This is the return stroke, a wave of positive charge traveling upward. This is the lightning stroke we see. The return stroke is traveling very fast, about 1/3 the speed of light. It all happens in less than the blink of an eye. The speed of the return stroke, along with the downward forks of the stepped leader trick our eyes into thinking that the stroke is coming down rather than moving up. The entire process may be repeated several times in less than half a second, which makes the lightning flicker.

Answer 2

Lightning is an abrupt electric discharge from cloud to cloud or from cloud to earth accompanied by the emission of light. The electricity passing through the discharge channels rapidly heats and expands the air, producing lightning's characteristic thunder sound. The discharge may occur within or between clouds, between the cloud and air, between a cloud and the ground or between the ground and a cloud. The majority of lightning strikes occur within a cloud... while only about 20% or so occur between the cloud and the ground. Lightning heats the surrounding air close to 54,000 F. This rapid and extreme heating causes the air to expand explosively, thus inititating a shock wave that becomes a booming sound wave or thunder (a sonic boom) that travels outward in all directions.

Answer 3

one in all some procedures: a million) from the floor up 2) between the clouds and the floor, and is going the two procedures 3) some lightning in no way strikes the floor in any respect - it is going between clouds apparently, whilst watched in sluggish action, lightning feels like it comes down from the clouds. that's spoke of as the "return stroke." It produces the easy, yet is techniquely in basic terms a followup to the strike.

Answer 4

lightning is the charge in the clouds which comes out. it is from sky to the ground

Answer 5

Why are people who have NO CLUE answering this question????

The correct answer is actually three answers. Cloud to cloud, ground to cloud and cloud to ground.

Answer 6

It can be within a cloud (most common), cloud to ground, cloud to cloud, or ground to cloud (considered relatively uncommon).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning

A map of the U.S. showing relative frequencies of cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground strikes is at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/essd04jan_1.htm
I assume that cloud-to-cloud in this instance includes intra-cloud and that cloud-to-ground also includes ground-to-cloud.

Answer 7

Ken's right it is from the ground up. I won'r repeat his explanation. But It's true.

Answer 8

Actually, neither, it starts from the bottom of the cloud.