Lightning can go:

1. From the ground to the cloud
2. From cloud to cloud
3. From cloud to the ground
4. Object to object (a spark plug is a man-made example, though it can happen in nature)

 

I can make lightning strike anywhere, anytime, any place.

All I have to do is smart off at my Darlin' wife one time...

 

Also, lightning can potentially strike an object 10 miles or more from the actual cloud. I think thats the number, i read that when i was studying up while i was doing lightning photography. I got some awesome pics, but after reading, i realize how dangerous it actually was. I dont do it anymore unless its very convenient and the conditions are absoultely just right.

 

i witnessed BALL LIGHTNING when i was a kid, now ya want to talk about bizzarre lightning!?

 

I was traveling way out in "don't know where Kansas" in the early eighties when I first saw ball lightning. Started at dusk and lasted a couple of hours.

My, then, fiancé and other residents of the hotel we were at laid back in the pool lounge chairs... with our favorite beverage of choice... and witnessed one of the most awesome light shows you can imagine. Stunning. Truly stunning act of nature.

 

Chug a lug had it pretty much, the figure quoted me from the NWS meteorologists was 50 miles.

 

1975Ford, the night before last there were numerous examples of cloud-to-cloud lightning with no rainfall. Dry lightning around here is a concern right now; any fire that starts due to whatever reason, and lightning is always a wildcard, has the potential to turn into something very large and very fast that will burn for weeks on end. Like the Tripod-Spur Peak fire in north central WA, burning for over a month now, it's consumed about 95,000 acres and is just 25% contained.

 

Have you ever seen lightning originate from a place in the sky where there was no cloud?
I have, last summer.

A thunderstorm was building in the area. I saw a stroke of lightning go from "sky" to ground. There wasn't a cloud where the lightning started from. It just appeared out of what was clear sky.

real strange thing to see.

 

A gentleman I knew was killed by lightning in Florida. On a perfectly clear day. He owned a nice Ford dealership in the Syracuse area. He was playing golf with his sister.

 

Yeah, It is what causes a lot of the fire in the western states. Thunderstorms are fine if they have rain, but the dry storms are the worst.

It also can travel 15 miles, so if you can hear it you can be hit by it.

 

The thunderstorms must be a sign of above normal solar flares originating from the sun. There been lightning everday for the last three weeks. Lately the rainstorms and thunderstorms arrive after 10:00 pm MST. Today forcast is Flood Watch warning for about three fourths of the State. There been localized flooding throughout the State.

There has been a house that has been struck by light three different times thru the years, that is very rare.

 

There was a discovery channel program that showed scientists making lightening. A rocket was fired trailing a thin filament of copper wire. It would be like connecting the positive terminal to the negative terminal on a battery (atmospherically speaking). Absolutely amazing. No clouds that I can recall, no storm signs, just empty air and then bam!


for what it's worth, my brother saw ball lightening. He was 12 and outside playing in our side yard. The ball lightening came down about 100' from him. He cried for a VERY long time. I was in my room at the time and I thought a car had exploded.

 

Today there was a tree struck by lightening. A lady had gone outside her home and was killed and so were 4 of her dogs that were chained to that tree.
The newscaster said if you can hear thunder then lightening is within 10 miles of you.

 

Late 70's driving down a highway near Newton Kansas. Saw ball lightning running down the ditches and lightning strikes on the road ahead as well as in the ditches and fields around me. Streamers flowing everywhere. It was awesome but my wife and sister both cowered down on the floor and missed the show. No rain at the time and broad daylight. Rain came later.

At about age 16 lightning struck a tree across the street and blew me thru the front door of my house. Luckily I had just twisted the ****...

Back in the summer of 84 my property was hit directly by lightning three times (three trees) and indirectly twice more thru the main power lines. The first strike was conducted from a bug light hanging in a tree outside thru the house wiring, blew holes in the walls, started a fire, welded all the HVAC ducts together, and vaporized the copper wire out of several circuits. Everything electrical or electronic in the house was destroyed. I was home at the time and was able to extinguish the fire before it spread.

Unfortunately a wood frame house is one of the most dangerous places to be in a lightning storm. The house wiring attracts the lightning but is not heavy enuf to carry the currents produced and people are killed by the side flashes and fires.