FORCES IN NATURE

Heavier, negatively charged particles sink to the bottom of the cloud. When the positive and negative charges grow large enough, a giant spark - lightning - occurs between the two charges within the cloud. ... Most lightning happens inside a cloud, but sometimes it happens between the cloud and the ground.

Positive lightning is particularly dangerous, because it frequently strikes away from the rain core, either ahead or behind the thunderstorm. It can strike as far as 5 or 10 miles (8 or 16 kilometers) from the storm, in areas that most people do not consider to be a lightning-risk area.

You're dead. First, lightning injures more people than it kills. In fact, approximately 90 percent of those lightning hits survive, but often with long-lasting neurological damage, says Dr. Mary Ann Cooper, a leading expert on lightning injuries.