Lightning strike

A lightning discharge that reaches and electrically affects the ground, a person, a structure, or another object. It can cause injury, fire, and physical damage.

Lightning discharge: A rapid electrical discharge in the atmosphere, occurring within clouds or between clouds and the ground. A strike is the ground-reaching form of this broader electrical event.
Lightning injury: Physical harm caused by lightning current, heat, blast effects, or associated falls and fires. It covers the medical outcomes of direct and indirect strike exposure.
Lightning safety: Practices that reduce the risk of lightning injury during thunderstorms. Shelter and avoidance measures lower the chance of becoming a strike target.
Cloud-to-ground lightning: A lightning discharge that connects a cloud with the ground. It is the principal lightning type that produces ground strikes.
Stepped leader: A branching channel of ionized air that advances from a thundercloud in discrete steps. Its downward path helps establish where a ground strike will connect.
Lightning protection system: A network of air terminals, conductors, and grounding components that provides a preferred path for lightning current. It limits structural damage by conducting strike current safely into the ground.
Lightning warning system: A system that detects or forecasts lightning risk and alerts people or operators. Warnings can trigger sheltering or halt outdoor work before strikes occur.
Intracloud lightning: A lightning discharge occurring within a single thundercloud. It illuminates the sky but does not itself reach a ground target.
Return stroke: A bright, rapidly propagating current wave that travels upward along a lightning channel after connection to ground. It carries much of the visible light and current in a typical cloud-to-ground flash.
Lightning-induced forest fire: A wildfire ignited by lightning, often in remote vegetation during dry conditions. A ground strike can ignite fuels even when no person or structure is hit.

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