Why so little lightning during a hurricane?

[Aimless]

I am on"storm watch" at my work and during this lull, we were discussing storms in general. Someone asked why lightning is not usually associated with hurricanes.... I don't know why......

[Air Force Met]

Because all the motion is all upwards and the updrafts are relatively weak To get good lightening you need a good updraft, like you see in a good thunderstorm. There is also very little downdraft. So...there is not a lot of bumping around, which produces the charge.

[weatherluvr]

Hurricanes operate on a different mechanism than mid-latitude storms in that they are powered by latent heat from the ocean, rather than temperature contrasts. Therefore, there is not as much instability to create lightning, since the higher altitude temps are not as cold. There is also little if any ice crystal formation in the tops of clouds in tropical systems, which is an important ingredient to create lightning.

Now, once a storm begins to transition to an extratropical storm, instability increases, and more lightning is possible.

[Aimless]

thanks- makes sense