Even as modern science has stripped the mystery from lightning, people are still at the mercy of its awesome force. The Earth is constantly bombarded by lightning strikes. It is estimated our planet gets struck 100 times a second. That's 8.6 million lightning strikes a day and more than three billion a year. The United States is hit more than 20 million times per year.
Lightning comes in with an approaching storm.
But in the case of lightning, the opposites also are trying to balance each other. That positive charge is most intense in isolated or protruding objects, like trees, tall buildings or a person standing in a field. When the difference between the positive and negative charges is strong enough, the insulating properties of the surrounding air breaks down and a lightning bolt strikes. What appears to the human eye as a flash of light is actually a complex progression of events. Next, the ground returns the gesture with its own ray of positively charged electricity.