A
Archimedes' Lever
All lightning discharges atmospheric accumulated charge to ground. I doLast night we had lightning, not flickering street lights -- and there
were power cuts also. Do you live near any rail system? The shoe
on the third rail makes some pretty impressive lightning which lights
up the clouds - especially in a fog or snow storm.
not know of any that goes from the ground, up to the clouds to "charge"
them back up.
You should re-evaluate what you think you know about lightning.
Lightning which "lights up the clouds" is called heat lightning, and
has never been due to the cloud being the final destination for the
lightning. It is cloud-to-cloud activity.
Lightning goes from charged accumulations in the clouds, DOWN to Earth.
Earth is the attractor, and is always larger than a charged cloud.
Atmospheric densities keep the clouds up there. Therefore, the only
way they can discharge is into the Earth, so that will ALWAYS be the
direction of travel, even if the leaders and such can sometimes make it
appear to the uneducated as if to go from the ground up into the air.
The ONLY exception are the "sprites" that spit straight up out into our
uppermost atmosphere. Even those are remnants of an Earthbound lightning
discharge.