"Harold Burton" wrote in message
...

"Richard Harrison" wrote in message
...
Height is shown to attract lightning bolts to grounded towers used for
various purposes. Many are hit by nearly every passing thunderstorm.
Towers take lightning bolts. They don`t always if ever discharge the
earth and atmosphere in their area to eliminate hits. They do seem to
divert strikes in their vicinity and offer some protection to their
surroundings.

I`ve spent years in broadcast plants and seen many lightning strikes. If
you build it they will come.

Best regards, Richard Harrison, KB5WZI

Saw a program on lightning a year or so back that described the mechanism
involved in setting up a lightning strike. Every raised object in a fairly
large area below an accumulating cloud charge
sends up a stepped "leader"of opposing charge, all these "leaders"
advance in steps that also zig and zag randomly upward.

If I remember correctly

you don't.

there are exceptions, but in most of the cloud-ground lightning the 'stepped
leader' starts down from the cloud. it progresses downward in 50-100m steps
bringing charge down from the cloud with it as it progresses (most often
negative charge). as it gets closer to the ground it attracts the opposite
(usually positive) charge under it, when the field strength is high enough
streamers start up from the ground and connect with the stepped leader and
the bolt that you see is triggered. streamers from the ground are normally
not stepped, they are a single breakdown between the ground (or some other
object) and the downward leader usually no more than about 100m long. the
final attachment point for the stroke depends on which streamer coming up
connects to the leader coming down first.