Lightning is, at its simplest, a spark of electricity that connects areas of positive and negative charges — within clouds or from a cloud to the ground, as seen here in the Arizona desert just before sunset. Photo © Marius Britt. Used with permission.

Lightning Strikes Twice, and Scientists Still Don’t Know What’s Going On

A pair of discoveries only reveals how clueless we are about how lightning starts and the “weird stuff” it does next.

You may have heard lightning never strikes twice. Totally wrong. The Empire State Building is said to be struck 23 times a year, on average. Here’s…