Rare weather phenomenon 'St. Elmo's Fire' captured near equator

Muhammad Osman
Sputnik International
Wed, 07 Oct 2020 20:33 UTC

© Twitter

Dramatic video as plane is caught in 'St Elmo's fire'

The rare weather phenomenon, which looks very similar to lightning, was said to have been captured by a military plane from the 99th Squadron of the UK Royal Air Force during a nighttime flight through the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) near the equator.

The UK Royal Air Force's Number 99 Squadron released on Monday footage of a rare weather phenomenon, known as "St. Elmo's Fire", captured by the aircrew of a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III near the equator.

The Number 99 Squadron tweeted that the incident took place while the C-17 was passing through the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ).

St. Elmo's Fire, named after St. Erasmus of Formia, is not lightning, but looks similar. The rare phenomenon, also known as a corona discharge, appears within a strong electric field in the atmosphere and is often accompanied by a "cracking or hissing noise", according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.

St. Elmo's Fire is "commonly observed on the periphery of propellers and along the wingtips, windshield and nose of aircraft flying in dry snow, in ice crystals or near thunderstorms," according to the text of the encyclopedia.

Comment: This rare weather phenomenon was also captured above the North Atlantic in February this year.