Car Exhaust Fumes Cause Lightning Strikes

Commuter car exhaust doesn’t just warm the globe - it can also increase lightning strikes for miles around.

During the working week, air pollution rises because of all the vehicles on the road.

This effect has been shown to modify rainfall patterns both at the weekend and during the week by creating stronger updrafts of air and bigger clouds.

Now it seems weekday pollution can bring lightning as well as rain.

Daniel Rosenfeld of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and colleagues, counted strikes recorded across the US by the ground-based National Lightning Detection Network in June to August, from 1998 to 2008.