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In the natural world, lightning has value, too

Nitrogen in the air is broken down by lightning and acts as a fertilizing agent.

For the Minnesota Star Tribune

July 8, 2022 at 4:53AM

Lightning produced in storm clouds. (Ron Johnson, Peoria Journal Star via Associated Press/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

In Waconia, where I live, we had a thunderstorm Independence Day and our first good soaking rainfall (.77 inches) since May 11. Within a day our garden and yard plants perked up.

Rainwater is better than hose water thanks to lightning.

Lightning is a visible electrical discharge produced by thunderstorms. The booming thunder sound is generated by rapidly expanding gasses along the channel of lightning discharge. Hundreds of people are hurt or killed by lightning every year in the United States. It also can start forest fires and disrupt electrical services, yet lightning plays an important role in natural processes.

Tons of nitrogen compounds are produced by lightning breaking down the air, which is composed of about four parts nitrogen to one part oxygen. The nitrogen is deposited on the soil and acts as a valuable fertilizing agent for plants.

For people outdoors, when you first see lightning or hear thunder, take shelter in a building house-sized (or bigger) or in an all-metal vehicle with rubber tires.

Listed below are a few more lightning safety tips:

Avoid being on an open area such as a golf course, beach, or athletic field. And don't take shelter under a tall tree. The leader of the negative charge from a thundercloud seeks out the shortest path to positive charges on the ground, and tall objects such as trees are the shortest path.

In a forest, seek shelter in a low area under a thick growth of small trees.

Get out of and away from open water, whether swimming or boating. While the chances of a swimmer being hit directly are slim, the flow of current carried by the water from a bolt striking at some distance can cause electrocution.

Here are some other observations:

Common milkweed is at bloom peak and fragrant. Check the leaves for small, white monarch butterfly eggs, and caterpillars. Female cattail flower parts look like brown hot dogs, and these stems are perfect for cutting now to dry for fall decorations.
Listen for the "banjo-twanging" music of green frogs coming from ponds. Tiny American toads are out of the water and on land. Juvenile ruby-throated hummingbirds are arriving at feeding stations. Northern cardinals have started their second nesting. Great blue heron young are in and out of their nests. Whitetail deer antlers grow and are velvet-covered. Deer flies and mosquitoes continue to be bothersome.
Farmers have begun harvesting their second crop of alfalfa. In southern Minnesota we expected field corn to be at least knee-high by the Fourth, but in some places where fields were planted fairly early and there was plenty of rain, corn was 4 feet or taller. Native blackcap raspberries are ripe and ripening. Garden blueberry shrubs have ripe and ripening fruit. In northern Minnesota jack pine forests, wild blueberry picking is beginning.

Jim Gilbert has taught and worked as a naturalist for more than 50 years.