Grit on Instagram: "Lightning is an enormous electric discharge that ionizes and heats air to roughly 20,000–30,000 K in microseconds. That superheated channel becomes a bright plasma that emits a broad spectrum of light — from ultraviolet through visible to infrared — so a single flash lights up clouds, terrain, and objects over large distances. The flash’s brightness comes from the plasma temperature and the huge current (kiloamperes) flowing in the channel; that’s why lightning can outshine e