I thought that the grounding of Earth dissipated the charge of the storm.rkm wrote:The fact that the vortices are more energetic over water is evidence of electric discharge, as water is a better conductor than land.
So I associated over-ocean as a capacitance or storing of charge that then grounds when reaching land.
Pathways of conductance or breakdown of a dielectric may be very specific, (whether through land or water).
The pathway 'reaches' up as well as seeking down. So the presence of an attracting charge above would draw from below.
If I missed something here - don't hesitate to let me know.