Can a lightning storm interfere with the Mavic Pro's compass and IMU?

[alpha_dh]

Yesterday evening, I was flying my Mavic above my garden. It was behaving very weirdly and I had a compass warning for strong interference before flight. I often fly in the same place but this never happened before. I recalibrated compass and IMU. Compass calibration was successful after a some failed attempts alone, due to interference (another thing which never happened before).

When my Mavic was in the air, although there were no strong winds, it was unstable. It would drift and alter altitude. In the air, even the camera seemed to behave weirdly. At the same time, there was lightning storm 3 km (around 2 miles) away. Some 30 minutes later, there was also a lightning storm above my home.

This morning though, my Mavic was flying without issues whatsoever in the sunny weather.

Could the weather have messed with the compass or IMU?

 

[BorisTheSpider]

Yeah that wouldn't surprise me at all, the air all around a storm is charged even if it doesn't reach a big enough potential difference for lightning in that location.

 

[hammer73]

While not saying that it was absolutely the cause, Boris is right. Air can be highly static. Amplified by the props' airflow. So, absolutely? No. Probably? Yes.