Where Lightning Strikes

From what in Leningrad corresponds to Washington's U. S. Bureau of Standards, last week came a method of determining where lightning is apt to strike. A bolt jumps from a cloud to earth when the atmospheric electrical tension becomes stronger than the resistance of the air between. The air resistance depends upon its ionization, and the ionization--Professor L. N. Bogoiavlensky assumes--depends on buried radioactive rocks and the electro-conductivity of the earth above. Hence he and his assistants go about with meters to register such radio-activity and electro-conductivity.

Where the meters show a level plain or plateau of hidden rocks the air will be lightly and uniformly ionized over large areas and there will be practically no cloud-to-earth lightning flashes. But where the underground profile is jagged with peaks and valleys, the irregular ionic counterparts in the air induce lightning to crash down the ionic ladders.

Most important application of Professor Bogoiavlensky's observations is to power lines which lightning storms frequently damage. The lines may circle troublesome regions or be specially protected.

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