One of the most powerful features of mother nature are undoubted electrical discharges, more specific lightning strikes. Some types occur like intra-cloud, cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground strokes. In latter case, negative or positive discharges to the earth's surface or objects on it are possible. The strokes with a positive discharge are considered to be quite dangerous as not seldom these can initiate a fire or in rare cases even the death of living creatures, the human being not escaping from it. When a thunderstorm arrives, best thing to do is to seek shelter like a house or car and close all the doors, if not possible stick as low as possible on the ground. Certainly some things not to do are: have a swim, remain standing on the  top of a hill, or seek shelter under a tree (as it may fall on top of you when hit by strike). Also inside you're home, taking a bath during a thunderstorm is not a good idea as water is a very good conductor of electricity.

But seen from a safe distance, lightning during a thunderstorm is always a pleasure for the eye.

The picture was taken on the aft side of a severe thunderstorm with on its front side downburst winds up to 58 knots. It shows a remarkable long cloud-to-ground strike which its impact at 20 km from the spot where this photograph was made.        

More pictures of lightning via this link