I think lightening strikes from the sky down, husband thinks it strikes from the ground up? Who's right?

Answer 1

Not trying to be diplomatic in order to promote domestic bliss and harmony, but you both are. A lightning bolt is the discharge of static potential resulting from one negatively charged source and one positively charged source.
When the potential builds up in the sky [sorry i just forget now whether that is the pos or neg one], everything within range on the ground sends up "streamers" of oppositely charged particles. Whichever streamer gets there first allows for the discharge to happen at its location. I remember seeing a special on Discovery that had a picture of a typical farm house scene: house, barn with weather vane, and windmill. The photographer happened to click at just the right time to show the main strike to the windmill and streamers rising up from the house and weather vane. It was pretty cool. So, every lightning strike is sort of a result of the two charges meeting in the middle-ish. You can both be right, sort of :)
Edit after reading a previous answerer:
Um, "neutr"ons are "neutr"ally charged and are not attracted or repelled by anything. Well, except a massvie enough object's gravitational field. It is electrons that move around in an electrical circuit. A lightning bolt is just the completion, or "closing", of a really big circuit.

Answer 2

When lightning strikes, the strike starts from the cloud (which has a far stronger localised electric charge than the earth). However, when the lightning flash gets close to the ground (or a tree or building), the charge in the flash is so strong (10,000 amps current or more) that it induces an equally strong charge in the ground that strikes upward (the 'return strike'), before the flash actually reaches the ground. As another answerer noted, the whole thing is over in a fraction of a second. So, you are both right, the strike originates in the cloud, but the direction of strike is actually upward at the last instant. That is why, in examining, say a tree that has been struck by lightning, the damage might seem to have ocurred from the ground upwards.
The current is so strong that it generates tremendous heat (30,000 degrees celsius); hot enough to ionise the air molecules, and it is the rapid expansion of the air that causes thunder.
Lightning also occurs commonly between clouds

Answer 3

Does lightning strike from the sky down, or the ground up?

The answer is both. Cloud-to-ground lightning comes from the sky down, but the part you see comes from the ground up. A typical cloud-to-ground flash lowers a path of negative electricity (that we cannot see) towards the ground in a series of spurts. Objects on the ground generally have a positive charge. Since opposites attract, an upward streamer is sent out from the object about to be struck. When these two paths meet, a return stroke zips back up to the sky. It is the return stroke that produces the visible flash, but it all happens so fast - in about one-millionth of a second - so the human eye doesn't see the actual formation of the stroke.

Answer 4

There is a pre strike that goes from ground to cloud but the main discharge is from the cloud to the ground so I guess you're both right

Read all about lightning at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning#Cloud-to-ground

Answer 5

maybe your husband is stupid? It strikes from the skies down. Why so? Some clouds are positively charged, and some clouds are negatively charged. Neutron jumps from positively charged clouds to the closes negatively charged, well almost anything that is close to him. That could be trees, buildings, or people.

Answer 6

Here's a photo of one that I took..it's hard to tell but I would say Down. I never see one going up...now I have seen them go sideways.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1169/637529812_a9bb4ae69e_o.jpg

Answer 7

surely it comes from the sky

Answer 8

You both are right.