lightning: Quick Facts

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Last updated

Nov. 12, 2026

News •

A look at the Weather Photographer of the Year 2026 finalist • Nov. 4, 2026, 6:00 AM ET (The Weather Channel)

Pirate skull is front and center on Lightning’s Hometown Remix jersey • Nov. 2, 2026, 10:04 AM ET (Tampa Bay Times)

Nikita Kucherov trade request from Lightning: What we know • Oct. 31, 2026, 2:06 AM ET (USA Today)

Nikita Kucherov informs Lightning he won’t re-sign, asks for trade: Sources • Oct. 30, 2026, 7:05 PM ET (New York Times)

Physicists May Have Recreated Ball Lightning's Mysterious Glow in a Lab • Oct. 24, 2026, 4:04 AM ET (ScienceAlert)

Photos and Videos

Lightning discharge

electrical charge distribution in a thunderstorm

triggered lightning

Two-part diagram explaining how to estimate lightning distance by timing thunder, and how thunder is heard differently based on location. The top section shows sound waves from a lightning flash reaching an observer, with a scale indicating that thunder is heard about three seconds after the flash for each kilometer, or five seconds for each mile, up to five kilometers or three miles. The bottom section depicts two people in cars at different distances from the main lightning channel and a branc

lightning rod types

lightning rod protection system for a residential building

lightning: cloud-to-ground

lightning flash

Lightning over Oradea, Romania

thunderstorm: rain and lightning

Is ball lightning real?

What Causes Thunder and Lightning?

Discover how rapid updrafts of warm air form cumulonimbus clouds resulting in heavy rains and lightning

Learn the science of lightning strikes and see how Faraday cages or Faraday suits channel lightning away from the objects they contain

Observe the density of lightning flashes in a typical year with its highest rate in South America, Africa, and Australasia

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Topics

leader return Today in History—June 10: Benjamin Franklin Flies a Kite—and Makes History Can Lightning Strike the Same Place Twice?How hot can lightning get?What causes thunder after lightning?How fast is lightning?bead lightning stepped leader Does Ball Lightning Exist?Cloudburst microburst Saint Elmo’s fire red sprites and blue jets

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Key People

Charles Steinmetz.

Charles Proteus Steinmetz

American engineer

C.T.R. Wilson, 1927

C.T.R. Wilson

British physicist

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Ebenezer Kinnersley

American scientist

rain. Child in the rain, wearing a rain coat, under a yellow umbrella. April Showers weather climate rain storm water drops

April Showers to March’s Lions and Lambs

battery. Illustration of battery connected to lightbulb. Power a light bulb with a battery. Battery, Power Supply, Science, Circuit, Currents

Electricity: Short Circuits & Direct Currents

Umbrella colored like a rainbow sticking out above a sea of black umbrellas while it rains. (storm, weather)

Weather Words Vocabulary Quiz

Lightning over a farm field. Weather electricity thunderstorm light energy tree

Facts You Should Know: Weather Quiz

13 True-or-False Questions from Britannica’s Easiest Science Quizzes