Many botanists believe that plant life on the earth could not exist without this natural fertilizer. Although the air we breathe contains nitrogen, we cannot absorb it like we absorb oxygen. We must obtain nitrogen from the plants and animals we eat. Lightning is a tremendous discharge of static electricity. During a storm, the earth's surface under a thundercloud becomes positively charged.
Loose electrons gather in the bottom of the thundercloud, making it negatively charged.
Since opposite charges attract, the ground and the electrons in the cloud attract each other. Because electric current always flows from negative to positive, the loose electrons in the cloud jump to the ground as lightning. Of course, lightning does not think before it strikes. The tremendous stroke of electricity instead follows the rules of nature. The earth is full of protons, and the electrons will find the easiest path from cloud to ground.