Alberta (Rural Roots Canada) – Lightning….friend or foe?   Both.

Thunderstorm season has begun across the prairies, bringing with it danger, and a great benefit to growing crops.

How to Stay Safe

Safety is paramount, so we’ll deal with the danger first.   Lightning is generated by the attraction between the negative charges at the bottom of a thundercloud and the positive charge of the surface of the Earth.   Similar to a magnet, the opposite charges are drawn to each other, and when the connection is made, a lightning flash results.  The danger is obvious.  The consequences can be deadly.   Besides holding n enormous electrical charge, A lightning bolt is hotter than the surface of the sun.  You don’t want to be struck.

Lightning is attracted to the tallest object in contact with the ground.   That’s why tall trees or tall buildings are often struck.  When you’re out working a field, you are quite possibly the tallest object – a target for a lightning stroke.   You don’t want to be the tallest object.   Crouching down isn’t good enough.

READ MORE: Lightning: Separating fact from fiction

The only way to be safe in a lightning storm is not to be outside when the storm hits.  Here’s how to stay safe:   Thunder is your alarm bell.   When you hear thunder, that’s the signal to take shelter.   Make sure the shelter you choose is a building with plumbing and electricity.  Stay in your shelter until 30 minutes after the last flash of lightning.   It will then be safe to go back outside.

Why a building with plumbing and electricity?   If lightning hits the building, the pipes and wires will direct the current to the ground, and away from you.

Why stay inside for half an hour after the last lightning flash?   Lightning can strike 16 kilometres from a thundercloud.  The storm could be out of sight, yet you could still be struck.

Benefits of Lightning

Unless lightning sets your crop on fire, it i actually of tremendous benefit to farms,  providing nitrogen fertilizer.  Here’s how that works…lightning strokes break apart nitrogen molecultes,  which are then free to bond with oxygen molecules, forming nitrogen oxide.  The oxides then react with the water in the atmosphere, forming nitric acid.   The rain drops then bring that nitric acid down to the ground, where it fertilizes plants.  For free. 

MORE:  Learn how Lightning and Plants Interact