How is Lightning Formed?      Lightning is formed due to a difference in electric charge between two areas. As the difference builds up either between a positively charged part of cloud/air and a negatively charged patch of cloud/air or a negatively charged patch of cloud/air and a positively charged spot on the ground a kind of electric tension builds until nature can't stand it anymore and tries to reach equilibrium (a state in which everything is balanced and equal) again by passing an electric current between those two areas that we call lightning. Usually the current travels from the negative section to the positive section, but occasionally (about one out of every twenty) a much more dangerous positively charged lightning bolt can be formed. http://www.hk-phy.org/iq/lightning/return_stroke_e.jpg http://3atoms.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/1024px-Plasma_lamp_bulb.svg_.png      Despite what most people learn in school, solids, liquids, and gases are not the only states of matter. As the electric current that we call lightning passes through the air it strips the electrons from it leaving only positively charged ions behind in the gas. We call this positively charged gas plasma, and this super-heated substance is what makes up the lightning bolt that you see.