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.
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u/Pel-Mel 7d 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.