Zeus, for example, is commonly shown with a lightning bolt in hand. The Greeks and Romans would built a temple on a place lightning had struck for they regarded it as sacred. Permission A scientific understanding of lightning only started to emerge following Benjamin Franklin's kite experiment in 1752. A metal key was placed on the string of the kite. The key gave off sparks and Franklin argued that lightning was indeed a form of natural electric current.
Lightning is basically the effect of electrification in a thunderstorm.
Here is more about the basic science in lightning . A lightning flash may be two or three hundred feet long, sometimes much longer. Though the lightning flash looks very wide, most of what you see is just glowing air. The actual flash may only be as wide as a pencil. Though a lightning strike will only last a few milliseconds, it is extremely hot.