Lightning and the transmission engineer

About 15000 high-voltage-supply interruptions are caused by lightning each year in Britain. Valuable livestock is lost, trees and buildings are set on fire, radiocommunication is adversely affected and, occasionally, people are killed. In countries of higher lightning activity, these events are multiplied many times. Occasionally, major disasters occur, such as the loss of an aircraft, and it is as well to realise that there are countries with 20 times as much lightning as occurs in Britain.