Lightning has captured people’s fascination for millennia. It’s embedded in mythology, religion and popular culture. Think of Thor in Norse mythology or Indra in Hinduism.

In Australia, lightning is also associated with important creation ancestors such as shown in First Nations rock art.

There are many different types of lightning – and many ways in which it influences our society and environment.

Lightning occurs due to a buildup of electric charge in clouds. This is similar to when you brush your hair or jump on a trampoline making your hair stand up on end, but to a much more extreme level.

This buildup in clouds happens due to different types of frozen and liquid water bumping into each other in the updrafts and downdrafts that occur due to convection – that is, from hotter air rising and colder air falling. The buildup of electric charge can become so extreme that electricity flows through the air. This is what we see as lightning.

We see the flash of the lightning almost as soon as it happens, but the sound of thunder comes later.

Sound takes about three seconds to travel one kilometre. Counting the time between the flash and the thunder can tell you the distance to the lightning. Just count the number of seconds and divide by three to find the distance in kilometres.

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