A lightning rod or lightning conductor is a metal rod mounted on a structure and intended to protect the structure from a lightning strike. If lightning hits the structure, it is most likely to strike the rod and be conducted to ground through a wire, rather than passing through the structure, where it could start a fire or cause electrocution. Lightning rods are also called finials, air terminals, or strike termination devices.
Lightning striking the lightning rod of the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada.
Drawing of a general store by Marguerite Martyn in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of October 21, 1906, with a traveling salesman selling lightning rods
Lightning protection system at a launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Lightning rod on a statue.
A lightning strike or lightning bolt is a lightning event in which the electric discharge takes place between the atmosphere and the ground. Most originate in a cumulonimbus cloud and terminate on the ground, called cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning. A less common type of strike, ground-to-cloud (GC) lightning, is upward-propagating lightning initiated from a tall grounded object and reaching into the clouds. About 25% of all lightning events worldwide are strikes between the atmosphere and earth-bound objects. Most are intracloud (IC) lightning and cloud-to-cloud (CC), where discharges only occur high in the atmosphere. Lightning strikes the average commercial aircraft at least once a year, but modern engineering and design means this is rarely a problem. The movement of aircraft through clouds can even cause lightning strikes.
Lightning striking the Eiffel Tower in 1902. The metal tower acts as a colossal lightning conductor. The presence of multiple bolts shows this is a time-exposure photograph
Memorial to a man killed by lightning in London, 1787
A tree exploded when struck by lightning.
This eucalyptus tree was struck by lightning, while two nearby conifers were untouched, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.
