How do Clouds acquire enormous static electric charges?

Question

How do Clouds acquire enormous static electric charges?

Answer 1

They are 'born' with them!  

Water molecules are polarised, that is, they have a positive end and a negative end.  In a general vapour, these are randomly orientated.

However, the oxygen 'end' is heavier and in a free vapour, the molecules can rotate 'heavy end down'. i.e. negative end down.  Turbulence within the cloud usually causes random orientation, neutralising the effects of the polarisation.  Under the appropriate tempetrature and pressure (and density) the polarization becomes more regular and hence the bottom of the clouds become negative and the tops, positive.  This electrical potential causes 'flashover' in the clouds i.e. lightning within the cloud.  If the humidity is high enough to make the path to earth more conductive than to the top of the cloud, the discharge will be to the Earth.

Answer 2

Formation:

The first process in the generation of lightning is charge separation.

The mechanism by which charge separation happens is still the subject of research, but one hypothesis is the polarization mechanism, which has two components:

1. Falling droplets of ice and rain become electrically polarized as they fall through the atmosphere's natural electric field;

2. Colliding ice particles become charged by electrostatic induction.

Ice and supercooled water are the keys to the process. Violent winds buffet tiny hailstones as they form, causing them to collide. When the hailstones hit ice crystals, some negative ions transfer from one particle to another. The smaller, lighter particles lose negative ions and become positive; the larger, more massive particles gain negative ions and become negative.

Fun Facts:

Lightning is an atmospheric discharge of electricity, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms. In the atmospheric electrical discharge, a leader of a bolt of lightning can travel at speeds of 60,000 m/s, and can reach temperatures approaching 30,000 °C (54,000 °F), hot enough to fuse silica sand into petrified lightning, known scientifically as glass channels or fulgurites which are normally hollow and can extend some distance into the ground. There are some 16 million lightning storms in the world every year. The chance of being struck by lightning is approximately 576,000 to 1 and the chance of actually being killed by lightning is approximately 2,320,000 to 1.

Answer 3

By eating all their veggetables.

Answer 4

Water is polarised and because there is a large air movement in clouds the water droplets gets charged by moving past other droplets and dust in the air and a charge builds up.  

Answer 5

cuz the earth got electric too..so they meet each other and become enormous electric!!!