"Thunder is impressive," Mark Twain wrote, "but it is lightning that does the work." Anyone who's watched a lightning storm will understand what he meant: Lightning is one of nature's most ...

Have you ever shuffled through your living room carpet in socks and touched a doorknob to be met with a pop! and a shock? That’s what’s happening in the clouds during a thunderstorm. Our eyes deceive ...

“We call it megaflash lightning and we’re just now figuring out the mechanics of how and why it occurs,” study co-author and Arizona State University climatologist Randy Cerveny said in a statement.

An enormous, 515-mile-long flash of lightning that crossed at least three states has been named the longest in recorded history in the world. The 2017 “megaflash” stretched from eastern Texas to near ...

Lightning is a familiar sight in stormy skies, but a new report has revealed just how far some bolts can travel — in one case, more than 500 miles. That astonishing bolt sparked to life in eastern ...

A thunderstorm with cloud to ground lightning rages during the day in China on July 21, 2025. CREDIT: Photo by Liu Wei/Xinhua via Getty Images. Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs ...