Is Purple lightning real?
When lightning strikes, different particles will scatter this light and cause the strike to appear as blue, pink, purple, white or even a brown-ish tint. You'll sometimes see more pinks or greens during snowstorms, as snowflakes tend to bend the light more.
So having a little bit less moisture in the air inside will cause our lightning to be so specifically consistent in that it's always kind of purple. And that's one of the questions that we get all the time. But it also has to do a lot with kind of how close you are to the lightning.
Perhaps the strangest colors reported are instances of pink or green lightning seen during snowstorms. The phenomenon, known as”thundersnow”, is rare. The unique sky color is caused as snowflakes refract and reflect the white bolt in a unique way.
The color of the bolt depends on how hot it is; the hotter the lightning, the closer the color will be to the end of the spectrum. The color spectrum in this case start with infared which is red and the coolest up to ultraviolet which appears violet and is the hottest.
So when highly charged electrons zip through the gas in our atmosphere (Lightning) it excites the molecules in the atmosphere by ionizing it. This then makes them quickly release photons (visible light) and because we are mainly Nitrogen and Oxygen at the surface we see a combination of violets, blues, and reds.
The radiation in these invisible blasts can carry a million times as much energy as the radiation in visible lightning. Still, that energy dissipates quickly in all directions rather than remaining in a lightning bolt. Scientists call this dark lightning, and it is invisible to the human eye.
The most common color for lightning is white. This is also the hottest type of lightning and so the most dangerous. It is caused by a low concentration of moisture and a high level of dust in the air.
Spider lightning refers to long, horizontally traveling flashes often seen on the underside of stratiform clouds. Spider lightning is often linked to +CG flashes.
It is relatively rare, and when it occurs, it typically only produces flashes within clouds. The muffling effect of snow makes thundersnow tough to hear even if it occurs. Most of the time, it appears just as a blue flash — blue because of the high concentration of ice crystals in the air.
“Superbolts” are the most powerful lightning on Earth, with discharges so strong that they cannot be reproduced in the laboratory.
What is the strongest form of lightning?
These rare "superbolts," which are 1000 times stronger than the average strike, also seem to hit far more frequently over ocean than land. To find out where and when this super-lightning occurs, researchers used a network of roughly 100 lightning detecting stations on six continents.
Lightning and rainbows can happen simultaneously, but the weather conditions must be perfect — and to capture it on camera, you have to be there, facing the right direction at the exact right time.
Perhaps the sight of a rainbow and lightning together is so rare, then, because during a storm there is often not enough light for the former to occur. Or possibly, they happen just when a storm is abating: still enough charge for lightning but enough sunlight for a rainbow. No one truly knows for sure.
Raindrops may shuttle electrical charges to form lightning, but to form a rainbow, raindrops must scatter sunlight, separating the light into the colors that make up a rainbow.
While upward lightning isn't extremely rare, it's a beautiful sight and tough to capture on camera.
In snowstorms, where it is somewhat rare, pink and green are often described as colors of lightning. Haze, dust, moisture, raindrops and any other particles in the atmosphere will affect the color by absorbing or diffracting a portion of the white light of lightning.
Like regular lightning, red lightning is caused by a build-up of electrical charge in clouds, but in this case the excess charge is released to the ionosphere — around 50 miles (81 kilometers) up — rather than to the ground. Sprites are usually red in colour, and can range in shape between a jellyfish and a carrot.
Lightning is hot. Really hot. It can reach temperatures as high as 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit, five times hotter than the surface of the sun, and even hotter than lava here on Earth.
In fact, lightning can heat the air it passes through to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5 times hotter than the surface of the sun).
Light's wavelengths move at different speeds depending on the color, with infrared being the slowest and ultraviolet the fastest. Lightning on a speedster works pretty much the same way, with slower speedsters generating red lightning and faster speedsters generating violet lightning.
What is cold lightning called?
Thundersnow is caused by the same mechanisms as regular thunderstorms, however it is much more rare during the winter because cold dense air is less likely to rise.
Anvil crawler lightning, sometimes called spider lightning, is created when leaders propagate through horizontally-extensive charge regions in mature thunderstorms, usually the stratiform regions of mesoscale convective systems.
1. The speed of lightning. While the flashes we see as a result of a lightning strike travel at the speed of light (670,000,000 mph) an actual lightning strike travels at a comparatively gentle 270,000 mph.
The bizarre phenomenon, also known as globe lightning, usually appears during thunderstorms as a floating sphere that can range in color from blue to orange to yellow, disappearing within a few seconds. It's sometimes accompanied by a hissing sound and an acrid odor.
Lighting heats the air to roughly 50,000° (which is 5 times hotter than than the surface of the sun). The heat produces a rapid expansion of the air, causing a compression of the air in front of it. This develops a shock wave that reverberates through the molecules in the air until the shock wave gets to you.
While many people incorrectly think that heat lightning is a specific type of lightning, it is simply the light produced by a distant thunderstorm. Often, mountains, hills, trees or just the curvature of the earth prevent the observer from seeing the actual lightning flash.
In the United States, the lifetime odds of being struck by lightning are only 1 in 15,300. In any given year, those odds increase to about 1 in 1.2 million. Interestingly enough, most people survive. If you are struck by lightning the chance of it being fatal is only 1 in 10, a 90% survival rate.
Lightning in California is relatively rare. Then, when it does come, it can come in the form of “dry” lightning or thunderstorms, which are storms accompanied by little to no rain.
Heat lightning is common during the summer months. Learn what causes it and why you can see it. At this time of year on warm, humid nights, the phenomenon known as “heat lightning” is very common. The sky will seem to flicker with light; and even on a seemingly clear night with stars, you may see flashes.
Dark lightning is a burst of gamma rays produced during thunderstorms by extremely fast moving electrons colliding with air molecules. Researchers refer to such a burst as a terrestrial gamma ray flash.
Why lightning but no thunder?
Sometimes lightning may be seen but there is no thunder heard. This is either because thunder is rarely heard more than 20 km away or because the atmospheric conditions lead to sound bending upwards and away from the surface.
Strikes that are closer to you will most likely appear white, because there's less atmosphere to pass through before the light reaches your eyes. Elements in the air, such as nitrogen or oxygen, can cause the lightning flash to take on a different color like pink or blue. We saw plenty of pink strikes Thursday evening.
When You See Lightning, Count The Time Until You Hear Thunder. If That Is 30 Seconds Or Less, The Thunderstorm Is Close Enough To Be Dangerous – Seek Shelter (if you can't see the lightning, just hearing the thunder is a good back-up rule). Wait 30 Minutes Or More After The Lightning Flash Before Leaving Shelter.
According to lightning scientists, megaflashes are at least 100 kilometers (62 miles) in distance and do not occur in ordinary thunderstorms. They need large, electrified clouds that discharge at low enough rates to allow for single horizontal flashes spanning great distances.
A return stroke of lightning, that is, a bolt shooting up from the ground to a cloud (after a stream of electricity came downward from a cloud) can peak at 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit (F).
A flash of lightning.
More than 90 percent of lightning bolts strike over the continents, but the lightning that strikes the ocean can be far more intense.
How much energy is that? The most powerful lightning strike releases about as much energy as a low-yield nuclear weapon, a quarter kiloton of TNT.
While most Force Lightning manifested itself as blue(Darth Vader (before duel on Mustafar and obtaining armor), Darth Tyranus), it could appear in several hues. For example, Palpatine, Darth Bane and Darth Nox had all used purple lightning.
“Coastal California is one of the areas on Earth with the least amount of lightning,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA and The Nature Conservancy. But rare thunderstorms in California have large effects.
Can lightning be any color?
Bolts of lightning can come in a variety of colors. Most often we see white bolts of lightning but it can take on any of the colors in the rainbow ranging from red (in the infrared band) to violet (in the UV region). Depending on weather conditions you might see tinges of other colors at the edges.
They aren't especially rare, but they're fleeting and hard to capture on film. Lightning sprites are electrical discharges high in Earth's atmosphere. They're associated with thunderstorms, but they're not born in the same clouds that send us rain.
First reported in 1994, dark lightning is estimated to flash around the world about a thousand times each day. But scientists have only a hazy understanding of how it initiates. They generally agree dark lightning is sparked by the electric fields generated by thunderstorms and lightning bolts.
According to weather experts, it's rare to see a tornado and a rainbow at the same time. The last known photo of the phenomenon was captured in Kansas in 2004 by photographer Eric Nguyen.
A rainbow does not exist at one particular location. Many rainbows exist; however, only one can be seen depending on the particular observer's viewpoint as droplets of light illuminated by the sun.
Like glass prisms, raindrops break sunlight into different colors and reflect that light to make a rainbow. Some say that rainbows come after the storm. While that is true, it is also true that rainbows can appear during a storm.
Most often we see white bolts of lightning but it can take on any of the colors in the rainbow ranging from red (in the infrared band) to violet (in the UV region). Depending on weather conditions you might see tinges of other colors at the edges.
Purple – this color of lightning occurs when there is high humidity in the atmosphere and is typically accompanied by high precipitation. Yellow – while this color of lightning is uncommon, it can be caused when there is a high concentration of dust in the air.
When lightning strikes, different particles will scatter this light and cause the strike to appear as blue, pink, purple, white or even a brown-ish tint. You'll sometimes see more pinks or greens during snowstorms, as snowflakes tend to bend the light more.
In fact, lightning can heat the air it passes through to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5 times hotter than the surface of the sun).
Does rainbow lightning exist?
Perhaps the sight of a rainbow and lightning together is so rare, then, because during a storm there is often not enough light for the former to occur. Or possibly, they happen just when a storm is abating: still enough charge for lightning but enough sunlight for a rainbow. No one truly knows for sure.
Iris (Candice Patton) got the chance to walk a mile (or technically run several miles) in Barry's (Grant Gustin) shoes Tuesday night on The Flash, but you may have noticed one key difference in her and Barry's speedster abilities. While Barry emits yellow lightning in his wake, Iris trails purple lightning instead.
The Lightning Release: Purple Electricity technique was developed by Kakashi Hatake after the loss of his Sharingan following the Fourth Shinobi World War, which left him unable to safely use his signature Lightning Cutter technique.