Lightning in Slow Motion (7,207 images per second)

Earth’s Blog: Earth on Facebook: Earth on Google : How fast is lightning? Lightning, in fact, moves not only too fast for humans to see, but so fast that humans can’t even tell which direction it is moving. This lightning stroke did not move too fast, however, for this extremely high time resolution video to resolve. Tracking at an incredible 7,207 frames per second, actual time can be seen progressing at the video bottom. This lightning bolt starts with many simultaneously creating ionized channels branching out from an negatively charged pool of electrons and ions that has somehow been created by drafts and collisions in a rain cloud. About seconds after appearing - which takes about 3 seconds in this time-lapse video - one of the meandering charge leaders makes contact with a suddenly appearing positive spike moving up from the ground and an ionized channel