I am not sure I can take this warning, which is all over the net this week, at face value. It brings to mind all the discussion about not using your cell phone at a gas station because of the risk of sparking, which seems at least remotely plausible. In contrast, the operative principle in the current warning, if it is credible at all, would seem to be “leave your cell phone home.” If a cell phone is going to attract a lightning strike, it would seem to be an issue of whether it is on your person at all rather than whether you were operating it to make a call or not. (Although, on second thought, could there be an effect from its relative height when you have it up to your face during a call rather than stored in your pocket, your waist or wherever?)

But I digress; more important, do cell phones inherently attract lightning strikes at all? If there are any readers out there who are telecommunication engineers, earth scientists or physicists, maybe you can comment on whether carrying a device with an antenna makes one inherently more of a target for lightning, or whether the cell phone use of the unfortunate young woman mentioned in the article was “correlation, not causation.”