Storms
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Cloud Lightning

Bolts Of Blue Lightning Thrusting Upward And Other Weird Lightning Explained


Science Daily
Sun, 30 Mar 2008 16:17 UTC
The mechanism behind different types of lightning may now be understood, thanks to a combination of direct observation and computer modeling reported by a team of researchers from New Mexico Tech and Penn State.



lightning strikes
©iStockphoto/Martin Fischer
Most people see lightning strikes that go from clouds to the ground, but some lightning goes upward, forming blue jets and gigantic jets. Perhaps the most dangerous lightning appears as "bolts from the blue" -- lightning that begins upward, but then moves sideways and then downward to hit the ground as much as three miles from a thunderstorm.


"Our explanation provides a unifying view of how lightning escapes from a thundercloud," the researchers report in the April edition of Nature Geoscience.

Most people see lightning strikes that go from clouds to the ground, but some lightning goes upward, forming blue jets and gigantic jets. Perhaps the most dangerous lightning appears as "bolts from the blue" -- lightning that begins upward, but then moves sideways and then downward to hit the ground as much as three miles from a thunderstorm.
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Cloud Lightning

Lightning strikes governed by moving cloud layers

Catherine Brahic
New Scientist
Sun, 23 Mar 2008 14:58 UTC
Zeus's weapon has been cracked. Researchers say they have finally worked out how lightning forms, how it escapes the storm cloud that fosters it - and whether it will form a "bolt from the blue".

The theory, which is backed by a computer model, is the first to explain all of the different types of lightning that exist - from regular cloud-to-ground lightning, to gigantic "jet lightning" that escapes up through the top of clouds, to "bolts from the blue", which can strike the ground under blue skies, several kilometres away from a thunderstorm.
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Bulb

Ball lightning bamboozles physicist

Anna Salleh
ABC
Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:19 UTC
Scientific theories and experiments have failed to convince a physicist what's behind the mysterious natural phenomenon of ball lightning.

Emeritus Professor Bob Crompton of the Australian National University gave a presentation in Canberra this week on the latest scientific investigations into ball lightning, something once considered as likely as UFOs.

"I don't believe there is any satisfactory explanation so far," says Crompton for these small bright lights that appear after a lightning strike.



Image
©Unknown
Ball Lightning

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Bizarro Earth

Strange Winter-Tornadoes Tear Through Midwest, Kill One

Carrie Antlfinger
Associated Press
Mon, 07 Jan 2008 00:51 UTC


©Mark Schiefelbein/AP
Lightning flashes through the sky as neighbors look through the wreckage of a home destroyed by a tornado near Niangua, Missouri, on Monday, January 7, 2008.


A freak cluster of tornadoes raked across an unseasonably warm U.S. Midwest, demolishing houses, knocking railroad cars off their tracks, and even temporarily halting justice in one courthouse.

Record temperatures were reported across much of the country Monday, and storms continued to pummel the nation's midsection as darkness fell. More warmth and storms were in store for Tuesday.
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Cloud Lightning

Unlocking the mystery behind lightning's puzzling friend


NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Tue, 07 Jun 2005 08:49 UTC
Sprites are likely generated by major lightning strikes.

Giant red blobs, picket fences, upward branching carrots, and tentacled octopi - these are just a few of the phrases used to describe sprites - spectacular, eerie flashes of colored light high above the tops of powerful thunderstorms that can travel up to 50 miles high in the atmosphere.

Sprites, so-named by a University of Alaska scientist inspired by the creatures in Shakespeare's "The Tempest," have been observed since the 1800s, though rarely visible from the ground. Aircraft pilots began reporting sightings of sprites in the 1950s and '60s, but they were not formally identified until 1989 when the Space Shuttle (STS-34) recorded the flashes as it passed over a thunderstorm in northern Australia. While many theories have been offered on the cause of this rare phenomenon, new NASA-funded research is settling the mystery and helping to determine the driving force behind these marvel displays of light.



©ISUAL Project, NCKU/NSPO, Taiwan
This dramatic, garishly colored image was captured with a low-light level camera on June 7, 2001. It shows what appears to be a "burning tree", or red sprite, above the National Cheng Kung University campus in Tainan City, Taiwan.

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Cloud Lightning

Venus has frequent bursts of lightning

Seth Borenstein
Associated Press
Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:08 UTC
Nearby Venus is looking a bit more Earth-like with frequent bursts of lightning confirmed by a new European space probe.

For nearly three decades, astronomers have said Venus probably had lightning - ever since a 1978 NASA probe showed signs of electrical activity in its atmosphere. But experts weren't sure because of signal interference.
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Cloud Lightning

Israel: Young man struck by lightning on northern coast

Ahiya Raved
Ynet
Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:54 UTC
Amin Subah, a 21-year-old resident of the village of Sheikh Danun was killed Monday afternoon after being struck by lightning near Achziv in northern Israel. Subah, who was fishing with his father and brother, was standing on the beach when the lightning bolt struck. A Magen David Adom team was quickly called to the scene and pronounced the man dead.



©Hagai Aharon
Lightning storm over Jezreel Valley Monday night


The tragedy occurred around 3:30 pm on the beach next to the local Achziv school. Subah and his father were reportedly standing on a jetty when the bolt struck.

Paramedics were alerted to the scene and pronounced him dead. The Nahariya police department confirmed that the death was caused by lightning and said parts of the body were badly burnt.
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Cloud Lightning

Rain, hail, lightning slam Puget Sound area

Scott Sistek
KOMO-TV
Sat, 20 Oct 2007 12:13 UTC
What an encore!

A day after wind gusts of over 60 mph Thursday, Western Washington was "treated" to a second round of storms Friday.

A large cool of very cold, unstable air moved into the region Friday, lighting up the radar with widespread showers that brought heavy rain, large hail, and frequent lightning across the Puget Sound area -- thunderstorms that were certainly big by Northwest standards.



©K. McAlpine

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Bizarro Earth

Polar lightning - not just an earthly phenomenon


Agence France-Presse
Wed, 10 Oct 2007 02:04 UTC
Images from a NASA probe have shown that lightning does occur at the poles on Jupiter, a phenomenon previously only seen on Earth, a study released Tuesday said.

Lightning strikes had previously been observed at lower latitudes and around the equator on the gas planet but the jagged bolts of electricity had never been observed at either of its two poles, puzzling astronomers.
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Cloud Lightning

'The Worst Thunderstorm in Memory' for West Virginia town

Karen Kiley
WBOY12
Thu, 27 Sep 2007 10:37 UTC
The storm struck at about 9:15 a.m. Wednesday with intense 60-80 mile an hour winds, pouring rain and golf-ball-size hail. The storm only lasted 45 intense minutes, but early estimates suggest about a half million dollars in damage.

Robin Hobbs house was hit hard by the storm. It uprooted two trees in her backyard and ripped the power lines right out of her house.



©Danny Snyder / Times West Virginian
Strong thunderstorms packing hail and winds estimated at between 60-80 mph uprooted trees in a narrow swath of Marion County from Fairview to just north of Rivesville Wednesday night.


"It started as a normal thunderstorm, but then all of a sudden it hit all four sides of the house with hail and rain and lightning," she said.
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