A spectacular two-image composite of lightning striking communication antennas near the top of Volcán de Agua (Volcano of Water) in Guatemala earlier this month.
Details of what causes lightning are still being researched, but it is known that inside some clouds, internal updrafts cause collisions between ice and snow that slowlyseparate charges between cloud tops and bottoms The rapid electrical discharges that are lightning soon result. Lightning usually takes a jagged course, rapidly heating a thin column of air to about three times the surface temperature of the Sun. The resulting shock wave starts supersonically and decays into the loud sound known as thunder. On average, around the world, about 6,000 lightning bolts occur between clouds and the Earth every minute.
(Image: Sergio Montúfar (Pinceladas Nocturnas)