Storm lightning – the mighty and majestic natural phenomenon capable to inspire awe the power. In the ancient time lightnings were considered as manifestation of supernatural forces, the evidence of divine wrath. However with development of science it became clear for mankind that anything mysterious or supernatural in the nature there are no lightnings. Their emergence and properties submit to quite clear physical laws.
In fact, the lightning is just very powerful electric discharge. It is similar to what sometimes arise if actively to comb clean dry hair a plastic hairbrush or to rub woolen fabric an ebonite stick. In either case static electricity which is discharged in the form of a bright spark and a crash collects. Only in a case with a storm cloud instead of a weak crash the thunderclap sounds.
The lightning arises at electrization of thunderclouds at which in a cloud the powerful electric field is formed. But there can be a natural question: why in general there is an electrization of clouds? In them there are no firm objects which could rub and face with each other and thus create voltage.
In fact everything is not as difficult as it seems. The thundercloud is just huge amount of steam which top part is at the height of 6-7 km, and lower does not exceed 0.5-1 km above the ground. But at the height more than 3 km from a surface the air temperature is always below zero therefore steam in a cloud turns into small small pieces of ice. And these small pieces of ice are in the constant movement because of air flows in a cloud. The less small piece of ice, the they it is easier, and, getting to the ascending streams of the heated air rising from the Earth's surface they move to the top layers of a cloud too. On the way up these small small pieces of ice face larger, and each such collision causes electrization. At the same time small small pieces of ice are loaded positively, and large – is negative. As a result of similar movements in the top part of a storm cloud a large number of positively charged small pieces of ice accumulates, and big, heavy and negatively charged small pieces of ice remain in the lower layer. In other words, the upper edge of a thundercloud is loaded positively, and lower – is negative. And when the large opposite loaded areas appear quite closely to each other, between them there is a shining plasma channel on which charged particles direct. The molniyevy category which can be observed a type of a bright light zigzag results. Electric field of a cloud has huge tension and during the molniyevy category the huge energy about one billion joules is emitted. The Molniyevy category can arise in the thundercloud, between two next clouds or between a cloud and the earth's surface. In the latter case the power of electric discharges between the earth and clouds is incomparable more, and force of the electric energy passing through the atmosphere can create current with power up to 10,000 amperes. For comparison it is worth remembering that current in a usual house electrical wiring does not exceed 6 amperes. Lightnings usually have the zigzag form because the charged particles flying to the earth face particles of air and change the direction of the movement. Also lightnings can be linear or branched. One of the most rare and poorly studied forms of a lightning is the fireball which has the form of the shining sphere and can move in parallel to the Earth's surface.