Which is hotter: a typical lightning bolt, or the visible surface of the Sun?

The answer

A lightning channel can hit around 27,700 °C (about 50,000 °F). The Sun's photosphere is only about 5,500 °C (10,000 °F). So a backyard thunderstorm briefly out-heats the star that runs the solar system, though only in a skinny filament for a fraction of a second.

Correct answer: Lightning, by about five times