Although lightning may be one of nature's most beautiful displays, it is also a deadly surge of electrical current.
Lightning is responsible for human and livestock deaths, airplane damage, and fires.
When lightning ignites a forest fire, it often causes damage to property and to the environment. The positive charges are attracted to the negative charges, but the air between them is a poor conductor of electricity. So, the charges continue to build until the air can no longer resist the attraction between the positive and negative charges. At this point, lightning occurs. As lightning travels through the atmosphere, it quickly heats the air around it.