I mean current flow or more exactly electrons flow when the circut is closed but when lightening strikes there isn’t any closed circuit so shouldn’t there be positively charged particles out there and if there are then how do they become neutral again?
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Let’s say you have a cloud with a lot of electric charge, and the ground with either no charge or the opposite charge. It’s often another cloud on the other end, but never mind.
As you accumulate more charge in the cloud, you increase the voltage between the cloud and the ground, which is a measure of how badly the charges want to get from one place to the other.
The only thing between the cloud and the ground is air, and air is usually a pretty good insulator. Insulators aren’t perfect, though. If you put enough voltage across them, they can break down and allow current to flow.
The flow of current is in the direction that tries to neutralize the charge imbalance, so it’s not long before there’s no charge left to make this happen, the lightning stops, the electrical separation is reestablished, and the charge can start accumulating again
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