I can think of less condescending ways to say "Your lightning is nowhere up to par."

Yeah.. well, first of all, the main branch of lightning will almost always, without doubt, be absolutely white. Because it's superbright strands of electricity, right? You also have to remember that it's producing light, so there will be some kind of light reflection from the cloud above it, and possibly some on the ground, and if it happens to be raining there's going to be that glowy appearance. You've kind of got the glowy/hazy thing down, but the middle needs to be super-bright. :>