News Earth

The birth of a lightning bolt was caught on video

High-res imagery captures link between electrical tendrils from the sky and ground

lightning above a town

Understanding how electrical currents from the ground and sky meet to spark lightning could help with predictions of where it will strike.

Michael Sanders/500px/Getty Images Plus

By Maria Temming

A new slow-motion video offers the best view yet of the split-second collision of electric currents that creates a flash of lightning.

The video captures a thread of electric current, or lightning leader, zipping down from a thundercloud to meet another leader reaching up from the ground.