There's a good chance the field only exists in the form of frequency and that the H20 molecules in clouds (clouds are basically H20) act as a conduit for this electrical energy when they oscillate at specific frequencies.
Here in Arizona, during the monsoons you can have hundreds of lightning strikes in an hour. It's beautiful (and scary when one is outdoors), but one realizes quickly that the clouds themselves can't contain that much electricity in a conventional field manner, especially when some exhibit continual strikes lasting for five seconds or more - much like a Tesla coil!

It's beautiful and, to the observant, it leads one to realize the clouds are acting as a conduit. And since clouds are water - the water has to change it's condition so that it can conduct electricity from a potential to the ground.
That difference is frequency. The atmosphere during the monsoons is WINDY. That wind oscillates and excites the water molecules and they increase their fundamental frequency. When this fundamental frequency is raised you create a huge "Tesla coil" effect which is composed of the oscillating water molecules and the ground. As soon as the cloud's conditions allow - this extra frequency energy is discharged in the form of electricity. No "electric field" is ever stationary or present in the cloud. The cloud's molecules simply channel that electricity when conditions permit.
The most ferocious lightning monsoon storms have been the windiest. Wind is facilitated by molecules and atoms oscillating with a vibration higher than their base rate fundamental frequency vibration. As a result, this frequency is discharged or converted to electricity like a Tesla coil. Unless you can measure the oscillation of electrons, the potential is entirely invisible.
The same basic effect occurs when we run our shoes over a polyester carpet and approach metal or another conductor--the excitation of the polarized electrons occur through friction and these atoms seek fundamental frequency and unload this frequency via an electric discharge of energy. Yet you would not be able to measure any detectable electrical field in our bodies as it is distributed among many atoms in the form of a slightly higher oscillation.
At least that's my working hypothesis...
;-)
SDAI-Tech1
Space/Science » in reply to Thunderstorm research shocks conventional theories
Well...
