Lightning bolts can not be seen from higher than about 150 blocks above the block they hit. For example if a lightning bolt hits 0 64 0, it's not visible from above y=221.
Best to reproduce with a repeating command block with the command summon lightning_bolt in it.
Linked issues
relates to 1
Comments 11
Some entities got a shorter render distance than others, which leads e.g. to MC-90683.
The less entities are rendered, the less lag of course, but in the cases of lightning bolts, unless it'd cause any horrendous lag issues, I'd be totally voting for using up to the whole build height, for more realism and thus logic, or let's say: Until the lightning bolt hits a solid block?
1 more comments
Able to confirm.