26 June, The Chaos Inside the Cloud, Lightning in Cornwall #nature #cornwall #lightning

Inside a churning thunderstorm cloud (a cumulonimbus cloud), there is an incredible amount of turbulent air. Warm air is rushing upward, while cold air and rain are plunging downward. As these currents smash into each other, millions of tiny bits of frozen rain (graupel) and crystals of ice collide at high speeds. 2. Separation of Charges All that colliding and friction creates static electricity—just like rubbing your socks on a carpet, but on a massive scale. Positive Charges Go Up: The lighter ice crystals lose electrons during the collisions, becoming positively charged. The updrafts carry these light, positive crystals to the very top of the cloud. Negative Charges Drop Down: The heavier, denser frozen rain chunks gain electrons, becoming negatively charged. Gravity pulls these heavy, negative particles down toward the bottom of the cloud.