Whilst you may see variations in area's, globally afaik the rate of lightning strikes hasn't changed at all, least I've not read anything stating that and if there was, I'd of thought that would of air publicly via the media decades ago.
Which is a shame as can imagine some types of people being a little more mindful climate wise if they got told that the odds of them getting killed by lighting will increase due to their actions. Alas that is not the case, shame as make things easier to communicate to those that need such communication.
But we are still learning about lightning, indeed I also would of thought extra particulate matter in the atmosphere would see more friction and with that lightning and that does not appear to be the case as clear cut and no hockey stick lighting rate increase globally.
Though of interest and related would be lightning formed by certain volcano eruptions, which does give some weight to extra particulates would make an increase in lightning, but then, we just don't see that globally and shows how much we don't know still about lightning. Let alone space lighting, which we didn't even know about a few decades back.
Which is a shame as can imagine some types of people being a little more mindful climate wise if they got told that the odds of them getting killed by lighting will increase due to their actions. Alas that is not the case, shame as make things easier to communicate to those that need such communication.
But we are still learning about lightning, indeed I also would of thought extra particulate matter in the atmosphere would see more friction and with that lightning and that does not appear to be the case as clear cut and no hockey stick lighting rate increase globally.
Though of interest and related would be lightning formed by certain volcano eruptions, which does give some weight to extra particulates would make an increase in lightning, but then, we just don't see that globally and shows how much we don't know still about lightning. Let alone space lighting, which we didn't even know about a few decades back.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_lightning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprite_(lightning) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distribution_of_lightning