Author Topic: Lightning related weirdness over top of thunderstorm  (Read 1854 times)

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Offline ptkeillor3

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Lightning related weirdness over top of thunderstorm
« on: September 05, 2015, 02:30:28 PM »
Over 4 decades ago, late 1960's, I observed something marvelous watching a thunderstorm.  I was a teenager helping my dad and the hands change over our crop dusters from spray to fertilizer.  This was about 9AM south of Houston near Danbury, Texas.  A thunderstorm was rolling up from the SE with the sun behind it, so it was backlit.  As a farmer / flagboy for cropdusters, I had grown up observing the development of thunderstorms, and was interested because I had been caught out in the fields often during one.

This time, I observed something I've never seen before or since.  Each time lighning would flash, I saw a layer above the anvil top instantly shift.  As I watched I could sometimes see pastel hues.  The whole layer, the size of the storm, would move huge amounts instantly every time lightning would occur lower in the cloud.  Once there was even a huge double loop many thousands of feet above the storm which disappeared at the next strike.

I kept trying to get Dad and Charles Allen, the hand, to look, but they'd glance and not notice anything.  I finally got them to stop and watch until lightning flashed, then they saw it.  Their comment was "Huh.", then back to work.

Has anybody seen this phenomenon?  Does it have a name?

Pete Keillor

Offline DanS

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Re: Lightning related weirdness over top of thunderstorm
« Reply #1 on: September 05, 2015, 06:08:31 PM »
I've read where conditions where right for backlit sunlight hitting high altitude ice crystals. These ice crystals would align themselves from lightning electrical discharges. Here's a video of such an occurrence.   Here's a good write-up with video of the phenomenon.
A possibility?
« Last Edit: September 05, 2015, 06:55:07 PM by DanS »

Offline ptkeillor3

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Re: Lightning related weirdness over top of thunderstorm
« Reply #2 on: September 05, 2015, 07:01:35 PM »
Looks kind of similar, but less in area.  Some of the changes on the video were as quick as what I remember, others less so.  The area could be related to the size and speed of the storm.  There was a lot of wind in the video, while there was next to no wind ahead of the storm as I recall.

Probably related.

Too bad we didn't carry (or imagine the existence of) cell phones back then.

 

anything