Data obtained in airborne studies of a small thundercloud (Gardiner et al., 1985 Dye et. al., 1986) have been examined in terms of the noninductive mechanism (Jayaratne et al., 1983; Saunders and Jayarante, 1986; Baker et al., 1987). Crude calculations are consistent with the observation that only a few percent of ice hydrometeors carry detectable charges. The reproduce the observed particle charges reasonably well. They suggest that this mechanism can explain the observed electrical development, and predict that most of the charge in thunderstorms is carried on particles greater than about 0.2 mm in size. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1989