The process of lighting

Lighting is one of the most beautiful yet deadly phenomenons  of nature, however many people don’t know how it is formed. Lighting begins with the cycle of water. In the process of the water cycle, moisture can accumulate in the atmosphere. This accumulation is what we see as a cloud. As the process of evaporation and condensation continues, these droplets collide other moisture that is in the process of condensing as it rises. Also, the rising moisture may collide with ice or sleet that is in the process of falling to the earth or located in the lower portion of the cloud. The importance of these collisions is that electrons are knocked off of the rising moisture, thus creating a charge separation. When there is a charge separation in a cloud, there is also an electric field that is associated with the separation. While the rising moisture encounters colder temperatures in the upper cloud regions and begins to freeze, the frozen portion becomes negatively charged and the unfrozen droplets become positively charged. Eventually the negative charge of the base of the cloud gives the earth a positive charge. When the electrical potential reaches approximately ten thousand volts per centimeter, ionization occurs along a narrow path and the result is a flash of lightning.