Why will a lightning bolt sometimes strike a low ... With the help of funding from National Geographic, he retrofitted the beast, replacing the film technology with extremely sensitive digital ...

This story appears in the December 2012 issue of National Geographic magazine ... Its dead spire, blasted by lightning, rises to 247 feet. Its four great limbs, each as big as a sizable tree ...

This story appears in the August 2012 issue of National Geographic magazine ... When the cloudburst comes, it’s quick as lightning. They plunge, a score of white tridents, spearing the waves ...

Editor’s Note: This story accompanies the May 2016 issue of National Geographic magazine ... figured in significant scientific discoveries. Lightning strikes above the Fan and Mortar geysers ...