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What is the electric charge of the clouds?

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The precursor of any lightning strike is the polarization of positive and negative charges within a storm cloud. The tops of the storm clouds are known to acquire an excess of positive charge and the bottoms of the storm clouds acquire an excess of negative charge. read more

Clouds do suffer from tribo-electric effect: as they are pushed by wind they get charged, same as you do when you trip together woll and glass or synthetic plastic: electrical charge gets on them. This is why they discharge to the ground from time to time, when condition allows. read more

The electric field within the storm is not the only one that develops. Below the negatively charged storm base, positive charge begins to pool within the surface of the earth (see image left). This positive charge will shadow the storm wherever it goes, and is responsible for cloud-to-ground lightning. read more

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