Results of ground-based measurements of the atmospheric electricity parameters at the network of middle- and high-latitude observatories are used for the investigation of the space-time structure of regular and irregular variations of the atmospheric electricity of fair weather. Regular diurnal variations contain a complex superposition of universal, local, and magnetic local time controlled variations. Amplitudes of these components depend on season, latitude, and height of an observatory above the sea level. Subdivision of the irregular atmospheric electricity variations, in accordance with their space and time structure and physical nature, helps to extract the particularities of atmospheric electricity responses to the different geophysical events, such as the complex of global phenomena joined by the term ''geoeffective solar flare'' and inclusive solar proton events, Forbush decreases of galactic cosmic ray fluxes and planetary magnetic storms; and regional phenomena in atmospheric electricity conditioned by magnetospheric substorms in high latitudes and by the Chernobyl (Ukraine) nuclear accident (1986) in Eastern Europe. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1994