During summer, the lower atmosphere is full of warm, humid air. Above that, it's cold
and full of ice crystals. As the warm air rises, it carries water vapor with
it, these molecules brush against the ice crystals, and this friction creates
an electric field in the cloud ( like scuffing your feet across a carpet). The
ice crystals gain a slight positive charge, and the updraft carries them to the
top of the cloud, giving the cloud's bottom a net of negative charge. Once the difference between
the negative charged cloud bottom and the positive charged cloud top becomes
great enough, it produce a electrification (discharged as lightning) or a sudden heating and expansion of the air (thunder).
But in snowy
months, the atmosphere is cold and dry throughout, so there's no updraft to
create friction within the clouds. Lightning and thunders will still occur at
the frontal zones, however, where cold air meets warmer air
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