Lightning
Lightning is a sudden electrostatic discharge during an electrical storm between electrically charged regions of a cloud (called intra-cloud lightning or IC), between that cloud and another cloud (CC lightning), or between a cloud and the ground (CG lightning). The charged regions in the atmosphere temporarily equalize themselves through this discharge referred to as a strike if it hits an object on the ground, and a flash if it occurs within a cloud. Lightning causes light in the form of plasma, and sound in the form of thunder. Lightning may be seen and not heard when it occurs at a distance too great for the sound to carry as far as the light from the strike or flash.
![A lightning flash during a thunderstorm](/Images/godic/202502/10/Blitze_IMGP6376_wp0701.jpg")
![High-speed, slow-motion lightning video captured at 6,200 frames per second.](/Images/godic/202502/10/-Lightning_Trumbull_County_Ohio.ogv0701.jpg")
![Four-second video of a lightning strike, Island in the Sky, Canyonlands National Park, Utah, United States.](/Images/godic/202502/10/-LightningCNP.ogg0701.jpg")
![World map showing frequency of lightning strikes, in flashes per km² per year (equal-area projection), from combined 1995–2003 data from the Optical Transient Detector and 1998–2003 data from the Lightning Imaging Sensor.](/Images/godic/202502/10/Global_lightning_strikes0702.png")