Lightning regularly kills people and animals, starts fires, damages power lines and keeps aircraft grounded. Until now it has been virtually impossible to predict lightning, with no simple technology for predicting when and where it will strike the earth. Engineers at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne's (EPFL) School of Engineering developed a simple and inexpensive system to predict when lightning will strike. The research led by Farhad Rachidi, resulted in a method of predicting lightning between 10 and 30 minutes before it strikes, within a 30km radius. Using a combination of Artificial Intelligence and meteorological data, researchers are now planning to use this technology in the European Laser Lightning Rod project, a project designed to draw lightning away from areas that are susceptible to lightning damage, the project is shown in the video bellow.