Near Clarendon, Texas. At the right place at the right time. This incredible bolt of lightning never touched the ground. Here is how lightning works. Ice particles are positively charged on the outside of the ball of ice. When these hailstones of all sizes are caught in the updraft part of the cloud, they crash into each other and the little positive bits of ice are knocked off and since they are lighter are carried to the top of the cloud. This makes the top of the cloud positive, therefore making the opposite negative charge at the bottom of the cloud. Every thunderstorm cloud becomes like a huge battery. Positive at the top, negative at the bottom, and positive on the ground. An invisible step leader makes its way to the positive ground and when it gets about a hundred or so feet from the ground, invisible streamers from pointed objects on the ground extend upward trying to connect to the invisible step leader. If one of them connects, the white hot bolt of light that you see starts from a hundered feet up and travels to the base of the cloud and from a hundred feet up travels to the ground. It's like a connecting point a hundred feet up and the bolt travels in both directions. So, actually, a cloud to ground lightning bolt travels mostly from the ground to the cloud. It's an optical illusion to us because it all happens in the blink of an eye!