Why we need to provide Lighting rods for lightning protection?

 A rod is the simplest and cheapest method ever created to protect an object against atmospheric loads!

 Since the lightning bolt will chose the lowest electrical resistance way to discharge the energy to the ground (electric potential zero), a metal object placed above the objective will create this road.

 The dielectric between clouds and ground is important for a lightning discharge. I was surprised to find that a lightning will strike near a valley and not on a hill. This is because the humid air near the river has a lower dielectric value than the dry air from the hill. 

 Wish you the best !

Lightning protection reaches up to maximum height equipments, we protect our builing by keeping rods more height when lghting affets it reaches through ground.