ABSTRACT
Frequently in the lightning literature, the upper bound on the rate of rise of lightning current of the order of 1011 A/s or a few times this appears. There is currently no theoretical explanation for this limit or the probability distribution around this maximum. In this paper, we present a simple theory which establishes plausibility of this limit in the case of a leader tip. We also compare the results of the basic theory to more complex treatments applied to nuclear lightning.
