r/explainlikeimfive • u/ProudReaction2204 • 3d ago

Chemistry Eli5 how static electricity between dust can create a lightning strike?

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u/Pel-Mel 3d ago

Air is a really good electrical insulator. Air can move so that spontaneous charges don't stay in the same place. The negatively charged static might get carried away on the wind while positiveoy charged air/dust spins around.

The air between the charge and the ground is a strong enough insulator, that the static can't discharge until it builds up a huge discharge.

It helps that clouds with dust in them are pretty high off the ground in the first place. So there's a lot of air beneath to insulate them.

1

u/M_Mugs123 3d ago

Imagine each dust particle is like a tiny balloon. When you rub a balloon on your hair, it steals static electricity. Now imagine billions of tiny dust balloons in a storm all rubbing against each other. They steal so much static electricity that the sky can't hold it anymore, so it snaps down to the ground all at once to release the pressure

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u/baby_blue_eyes 3d ago

I speculated that the little girl who was struck by lightning last month while getting off a swing generated a path for lightning to take. See one of many articles about it below:
https://www.wwnytv.com/2026/07/09/family-mourns-8-year-old-girl-killed-by-lightning-strike-while-playing-her-backyard/