On the Frequency of Lightning Flashes to High Objects A Study on the Gulf of Bothnia

The space-charge calculation of a lightning stroke according to Golde resultsin a simple geometrical relation between the area within which a flash strikes an object and its height. A comparison between the number of lightning strokes to chimneys and thenumber of lightning downstrokes per km² shows, that the statistical attraction distance of a 70 m high chimney is more than 250 m and thereby more than the leader’s step-length after Schonland. An explanation may be the space-charge plume, which leaves the lightning rod in a thunderstorm field and may conduct a lightning discharge to the chimney from some hundreds of meters’ distance.