The explanation of thunder and lightning in encyclopedias from ancient times to Wikipedia is described and discussed.

Environmental measurements were undertaken by Reinhold Reiter (1920–1998) around Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the Bavarian Alps for 4 decades. This included measurement sites on the Zugspitze and Wank mountains as well as the use of an instrumented cable car between the Eibsee and the Zugspitze summit. The Mount Wank site operated between 1 August 1972 and 31 December 1983, and the hourly data values – including atmospheric electricity quantities – for this site have been recovered.

Between 1880 and 1910 Elster and Geitel made important contributions to atmospheric electricity, in particular to precipitation electricity, the influence of solar radiation on the electric state of the atmosphere, the nature of charge carriers, and the ionization of air by radioactivity. They invented new instruments with unprecedented accuracy and reliability. A very modern concept was their attitude to undertake long-term measurements at various locations.