A stroke of lightning between a cloud and the ground can be up to 9 miles long. A stroke of lightning between one cloud to another can be up to 90 miles long. Lightning strikes the earth approximately 100 times per second. Approximately 100 people in the U.S. are killed from lightning each year and many more are injured. One stroke of lightning takes about one fifth of a second to strike.
Lightning is five times hotter than the surface of the sun.
Enough electric charge is in one stroke to light an entire city. Lightning has always been one of nature's greatest mysteries. The serious study of lightning began in the 1700's. In Africa people presupposed that humans and places that were struck by lightning were cursed. Some people in Europe and America thought that lightning could be kept away by ringing church bells.