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Photograph by Taylor S. Kennedy
Lightning streaks across the sky over Viñales Valley, Cuba. Lightning can travel up to 93,000 miles per second (150,000 kilometers per second). -
Photograph by Raymond K. Gehman
Lightning, like this streak over Georgia's Cumberland Island National Seashore, strikes the Earth about a hundred times per second! -
Photograph by Ta Wiewandt/Getty Images
Lightning and thunder occur at the same time, but because light travels faster than sound, we see lightning before we hear thunder. -
Photograph by William R. Curstinger
Lightning cuts through a dark sky in Patagonia, Argentina. Most lightning occurs within thick storm clouds. -
Photograph by Scott Sroka
Lightning lights up the sky over Madeira Beach, Florida. The area between Orlando and St. Petersburg, Florida, is known as "lightning alley" because there are more lightning strikes there than anywhere else in the United States. -
Photograph by Michael K. Nichols
A cloud formation in Tanzania glows with lightning. Tanzania's neighbor, the Democratic Republic of Congo, gets more lightning than anywhere else on Earth, with 158 thunderbolts per square kilometer (0.4 square miles) every year. -
Photograph by Joel Sartore
The most common type of lightning is called intracloud lightning, which means the lightning stays within a storm cloud. This example of intracloud lightning was photographed over Wyoming's Red Desert.
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