Which Way Does Lightning Travel Up Or Down

Lightning is caused by electrical charges in the atmosphere.

Which way does lightning travel up or down. It descends to the ground in steps each about 50 yards about 46 meters in length. But this is not always a straight line because air is not a perfect mixture. Cloud-to-ground lightning comes from the sky down but the part you see comes from the ground up.

Positive lightening travels in reverse by going from the ground up into clouds. Does lightning strike from the sky down or the ground up. This web site is made possible by support from CIS Internet.

It should be noted that if the temperatures in the surrounding air are low enough the vapor can condense and then freeze into snow or sleet. There are distinct types of lightning strikes to earth that can travel in either direction - cloud-to-ground lightning and ground-to-cloud lightning. No one is sure why lightning bolts follow a zigzag path as they move.

The answer is both. One of a few ways. Some types of lightning including the most common types never leave the clouds but travel between differently charged areas within or between clouds.

Light travels at approximately 300000 kilometers per second in a vacuum which has a refractive index of 10 but it slows down to 225000 kilometers per. It will make the sound we hear as thunder. It will make a flash of lightning.

Earths gravitational pull then causes the liquid to fall back down to the earth thereby completing the cycle. A positive lightning bolt which develops in the anvil or top of the thunderstorm cloud and travels generally straight down to strike the ground. August 14 2020 Content source.