© Paul Smith
Red sprites on April 12, 2020 @ Edmond, Oklahoma
On Easter weekend, a series of severe storms swept across the Southeastern USA, battering the region with powerful thunderstorms and deadly tornadoes. In Edmond, Oklahoma,
Paul M. Smith went outside on Easter morning to photograph the distant lightning. He caught these sprites leaping up from a thunderhead in Arkansas.
"The electrical storm had already passed through our area. These sprites were about 200 miles away, across the state line," he says. "After being stuck in the house for weeks, it was nice to be out and smelling the canola blooms."
Sprites are an exotic form of upward directed lightning. They often appear above the strongest thunderstorms, reaching their red tendrils up toward the edge of space. Last weekend's Easter storms likely produced a great number of sprites. Smith was perfectly positioned to photograph them--"I was just far enough away to see over the cloudtops," he explains.
Comment: There has been an uptick in volcanic activity worldwide recently.