Water droplets
rub against each other during a
storm. Every drop becomes
charged with a tiny bit of electricity, either
positive or
negative.
Updrafts of
wind carry the positively charged particles (small
ice particles) to the top of the cloud and negatively charged particles (large
water droplets) to the
bottom of the cloud. Since there are
billions of
droplets in a cloud, a cloud carries a huge
charge of
electricity. When the
negative part of a cloud moves near the
positive part of another
cloud or
vice versa,
electricity in the form of lightning,
jumps from the
negative part of a cloud to the postive part of another. Since the
earth is
positively charged during storms, lightning sometimes jumps from a cloud to the earth.
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