My take: Lightning is the dissipation of charged particles (ion and electron) built up in the atmosphere. When electrons are separated from their atoms by some means (chemical, friction, photoelectric, electromagnetic or some other way) an electrostatic charge exists on the atoms from which the electrons were removed (positive) and the electrons themselves (negative). When these separated charges accumulate together to build up enough emf (voltage) to ionize the air, or whatever is between them and an oppositely charged accumulation, an arc of electrical current occurs allowing the ions and electrons to recombine and the charge is nullified. The energy dissipated in the arc, in the form of heat, light and radio waves, is the energy originally built up (in the case of lightning) by violent friction in the atmospheric currents that caused the ionization in the first place. What may not be so obvious is that the charge 'that made your hair stand up' is between an atmospheric 'cloud' of charges and the earth, itself, which has the same charge as you, since you are standing on it. The object on the earth that offers the best ionization path between the two charges will be 'struck' if and when the voltage potential reaches the ionization point. And, it probably makes little difference if you are on your tractor with rubber tires unless it has a metal cab surrounding you. Lightning is the gorrilla in the electrical world!
Tall AM radio towers have guy wires with insulators spaced at intervals between the tower & earth. Often when a thunderstorm is building up, there is periodic arcing across the insulators (all at once in each guy) due to the build up of charges in the atmosphere around the wires with respect to earth. They discharge with loud cracks and simultaneous blue arcs across the insulators, even though there may not be any lightning strikes taking place nearby. Be aware of where you are when a thunderstorm threatens, you may not get any warning before becoming a part of an arc path! Is lightning AC or DC? The arc evidently has components of both, but it started out as DC.
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