Types of Lightning

Click on image for full size version (176K GIF) Photograph provided courtesy of Steve Albers

Lightning can take place in several different areas of a thunderstorm. About 80% of all lightning occurs within a single cloud. Most of the other 20% occurs from cloud to ground. Sometimes lightning can jump from one cloud to another or to the surrounding air.

Most of the lightning we see appears as a single line of bright white light. However, there are several other types of lightning that can occur. These include forked lightning, ribbon lightning, bead lightning, ball lightning, sheet lightning, and heat lightning.