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Lightning is static electricity that builds in an atmosphere.




And a mountain is a bump on the ground. It does feel like "lightning" comes with context beyond how the charge was formed, even if it could be technically correct to say that's all it is. Of course almost nobody knows what triboelectric discharge is either, but sticking to "static electricity" fits well between the two.

Lightning is a discharge of static electricity, but a discharge of static electricity is not lightning.

<sigh>

In the atmosphere!




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