Crazy Storm Weather and Lightning - Global

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And to think that this situation, generalized rains, we owe it indirectly to the hurricane ex #Larry , a tropical system that started in Africa and ended in western Greenland

https://twitter.com/x/status/1437808605500170245
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We thus noted 244 mm in Saint-Dionizy (30) in 3 hours, an episode which occurs statistically less than once per century. This absolute record for the Gard department is also close to the record for the whole of metropolitan France (253 mm in 3 hours in Montpellier in 2014)

https://twitter.com/x/status/1437818423719849986
From August 1 to September 12, 2021, 227 mm of #Lluvia at the national level, which means 19.1% more compared to the same period but in 2020, it was announced in Session No. 1510 of the #CTOOH

https://twitter.com/x/status/1437824233862750214

Motion 2 (4K)
Premiered Sep 24, 2020
Motion 2 - A 2020 Short Time-lapse Film created by David Baxter III. All scenes were captured during the 2020 storm chase season. All time-lapses in scenes are available for licensing up to 8K resolution.
Music Licensed through musicbed.com "Fable"- Ryan Taubert "Doomsday" - Shawn Williams Please contact mediadesk@svlmediallc.com OR dybaxteriii@gmail.com for licensing/purchasing assistance.
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c.a. said:
We thus noted 244 mm in Saint-Dionizy (30) in 3 hours, an episode which occurs statistically less than once per century. This absolute record for the Gard department is also close to the record for the whole of metropolitan France (253 mm in 3 hours in Montpellier in 2014)
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In Gard, France ping pong ball size hail were reported. Here is a video recorded during the aftermath of the storm, which transformed the highway into a river:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1437774145480237057
 
https://twitter.com/x/status/1439369666456010754

https://twitter.com/x/status/1439637594833362948
The #tornade in Carpi near Modena, caused great damage to an airport.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1439635783644758019
Outbreak of tornadoes this Sunday in the north of the country with at least 7 identified in the Po plain. A spectacular video at the Carpi
flying club in the province of Modena ( Marco Debellis) https://facebook.com/marco.debellis

https://twitter.com/x/status/1439610070459899906

https://twitter.com/x/status/1438838641741205508
 
Now this is interesting:

From SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids


A GIGANTIC JET WITH FIREBALLS: Lightning on Earth is getting weirder and weirder. On the evening of Sept. 20th, Puerto Rican photographer Frankie Lucena pointed his Sony A7s camera at an offshore electrical storm. This is what he saw:


​


"This Gigantic Jet plasma event occurred over a very powerful thunderstorm near the Virgin Islands just ahead of Tropical Storm Peter," says Lucena. "I can't believe I was able to capture such amazing details."


Indeed, this is one of the best-ever photos of a Gigantic Jet. Sometimes called "Earth's tallest lightning," because they reach the ionosphere more than 50 miles high, the towering forms were discovered near Taiwan and Puerto Rico in 2001-2002. Since then, only dozens of Gigantic Jets have been photographed. They seem to love storms over water and are famous for surprising passengers onboard commercial aircraft.


In 2017 and 2018, lightning researcher Oscar van der Velde of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya set up high speed cameras on the northern coast of Colombia in a dedicated campaign to capture Gigantic Jets. In three months of observing time he managed to capture only 12. That's how elusive they are.



Above: The red arrow points from Lucena's camera to the offshore electrical storm.​


"Frankie has photographed a rare Gigantic Jet with 'carrot' morphology, first reported by Su et al (2003)," notes van der Velde. "The other, more common type of jet has a 'tree' morphology." Here is a comparison: trees vs. carrots.


"Carrot jets" are remarkable for their internal beads--that is, bright balls of light hundreds of meters wide. Lucena caught dozens of them illuminating the jet's midsection. They might be places where streamers inside the jet are intersecting, or regions of enhanced heating.


"We don't know," says van der Velde. "Gigantic Jets are not easily placed in front of a spectrograph."


Meanwhile, Lucena is still marveling at what happened. "This is the brightest Gigantic Jet I have ever seen. It was truly remarkable."
 
Laura said:
A GIGANTIC JET WITH FIREBALLS: Lightning on Earth is getting weirder and weirder. On the evening of Sept. 20th, Puerto Rican photographer Frankie Lucena pointed his Sony A7s camera at an offshore electrical storm. This is what he saw:
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He also uploaded it to Youtube, open can the recording and play it at 0.25 speed. I think it is a fascinating observation; below are a few points regarding the nature of this event, and how one might be able to observe others.

Gigantic jets are in the Wiki listed under upper-atmospheric lightning
Among the observations they list a few, one just a week after 9/11 which has details of the speeds involved.
On September 14, 2001, scientists at the Arecibo Observatory photographed a gigantic jet—double the height of those previously observed—reaching around 70 km (45 mi) into the atmosphere.[18] The jet was located above a thunderstorm over an ocean, and lasted under a second. The jet was initially observed to be traveling up at around 50,000 m/s (110,000 mph; 180,000 km/h) at a speed similar to typical lightning, increased to 160,000 and 270,000 m/s (360,000–600,000 mph; 580,000–970,000 km/h), but then split in two and sped upward with speeds of at least 2,000,000 m/s (4,500,000 mph; 7,200,000 km/h) to the ionosphere where it then spread out in a bright burst of light.
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On Gigantic jets captured near Mauna Kea, Hawaii -- Sott.net there was one image, also by Frankie Lucena, the same person who recorded the present video. One notices the stars behind and the clouds below, showing he was quite a distance away.
Sprites.jpg


Gigantic jet as a variety of Transient Luminous Events in the upper atmosphere
Frankie Lucena also made an image showing different examples of Transient Luminous Events, found in an article, Get ready for the sprite season by DR.TONY PHILLIPS
frankie-lucena-tle_chart_2020_1200dpi_1583176434.jpg
Below the image are credits and explanations. The last may be helpful if we get the opportunity to observe such events and wish to find out more.
“This chart provides just a glimpse of what can be seen and photographed above very strong thunderstorms,” says Lucena. “I used actual images, enhanced and slightly modified to better show what they actually look like.” “This is the first chart to show the Ghost and a Negative Sprite event,” he continues. “The Ghost is a green colored shadow that appears above some sprites. The green color is caused by electrons exciting oxygen molecules in the mesosphere, approximately 80 km high. A Negative Sprite is triggered by a -CG lightning discharge as opposed to a regular sprite which is triggered by a +CG lightning discharge.” (Note: CG means “cloud to ground.”) DEFINITIONS:

SPRITES: They initiate between 65 and 85 km in altitude and are typically triggered by a positive cloud-to-ground lightning strike. The streamers first grow downward and then upwards before disappearing. They are mainly red in color but as they grow downward they will transition to purple and then to blue.

HALOS: They are typically triggered by a positive cloud-to-ground lightning strike like sprites and will sometimes appear together with sprites. They initiate at about 80-85 KM and will typically look like a red oval shaped cloud.

TROLLS: They occur during long-lasting sprite events with ongoing lightning activity in the cloud and with long lasting +CG currents to ground. Its hard to link them to a particular cloud-to-ground lightning strike. They are mainly purple in color like the tendrils of a sprite and will transition to blue towards the bottom.

ELVES: They are an electromagnetic pulse that originates at the same time as the cloud-to-ground lightning strike. They project a ring of red light as electrons at the base of the ionosphere excite nitrogen molecules. They typically appear at about 90 Km in altitude and are considered the most common type of Transient Luminous Event.

BLUE STARTERS: A blue starter is an electric streamer discharge that initiates under the screening layer at the cloud top. They start out as a white channel rising from the cloud top that quickly transitions to a blue fan shaped plume as it travels upwards to about 26 Km in altitude. The white channel is rarely seen because they are typically obscured by the cloud.

BLUE JETS: They are often linked to charge removal by negative cloud-to-ground lightning. They initiate under the screening layer at the cloud top and they start out as a bright white channel rising from the top of the storm cloud that quickly transitions to a blue coned shaped plume as it travels upwards to about 40 Km in altitude. The white channel is rarely seen because they are often obscured by the cloud.

GIGANTIC JETS: Unlike Blue Jets and Starters, a Gigantic Jet initiates in the middle of the storm cloud. They start out as a bright white channel rising from the cloud top that quickly transitions to blue and then to red as it climbs as high as 80-90 Km in altitude. They are usually preceded by multiple negative cloud-to-ground lightning and will typically appear during a null in the lightning activity.

NEGATIVE SPRITE: These sprites are similar to regular sprites but are triggered by a negative polarity cloud to ground lightning discharge (-CG). A negative sprite requires a higher Charge Moment Change than a regular sprite and is usually located above the convective core, or the surrounding area, because this is where -CG lightning usually occurs.

GHOST: Newly discovered so little is known. They sometimes appear at the top of a Sprite event and are green in color. The green color is caused by electrons exciting Oxygen molecules high up in the Mesosphere at around ~80 Km.

PIXIES: They are blue emissions of light that are very small in size and usually located either on top or on the outer wall of the convective core of a storm cell.

SECONDARY GIGANTIC JET: They originate from the cloud top, under the shielding area of the preceding sprites, and develop upward to reach the lower ionosphere at ∼90 km. The streamers branch outward towards the top, which is similar to what occurs in a Gigantic Jet event.
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Wondering about Transient Luminous Events and meteoric or cometary dust
In the descriptions of the various phenomena above, one may notice the height for sprites and halos overlaps with that of noctilucent clouds which is 76,000 to 85,000 m (250,000 to 280,000 ft). One could then ask if the presence of meteoric or cometary dust would affect the behavior and occurrence of Transient Luminous Events. I did not find that much, but learned about the E-region "2) Telecommunications: E-layer, an ionospheric layer located at a distance of (95-130) km from the earth's surface" mentioned in one paper, by Muralikrishna, Polinaya: "Meteoric dust effects on the electrodynamics of low latitude E-region plasma" which in the abstract mentioned:
Changes in the conductivity parameters, especially in the lower E-region can also be caused by the ambient dust particles of meteoric origin. Statistical studies have shown that the monthly occurrence rate of reversals in the electrojet currents is highly correlated to the monthly mean of meteor showers. This high correlation is seen even during geomagnetically disturbed periods. The meteoric dust particles thus play a very important role in altering the local electrical conductivities in the lower E-region and in controlling the electrodynamic processes in this region.
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Leaving the speculations, next is something one might try.

Ideas for practical observation
On the net one can find guides to observation, in this thread on cloudynights.com there were a couple of links, like this article Sprite Season Begins from April 2021, where one finds this image:
giveitatry_crop.jpg
The distance of the event from the observer is more than 100 km. In the case explained in the article, more than 300 km:
“I was about 200 miles away from the thunderstorm,” says Smith. Turns out, that’s about the right distance. You have to be far away to see sprites over the top of the thunderclouds.
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A mesoscale convective system mentioned in the drawing is explained in the Wiki as:
A mesoscale convective system (MCS) is a complex of thunderstorms that becomes organized on a scale larger than the individual thunderstorms but smaller than extratropical cyclones, and normally persists for several hours or more. A mesoscale convective system's overall cloud and precipitation pattern may be round or linear in shape, and include weather systems such as tropical cyclones, squall lines, lake-effect snow events, polar lows, and mesoscale convective complexes (MCCs), and generally forms near weather fronts. The type that forms during the warm season over land has been noted across North and South America, Europe, and Asia, with a maximum in activity noted during the late afternoon and evening hours.
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Ready to observe?
If one has to be more than a 100 km away, one would need to know where the storm is in advance. On Blitzortung.org, one can find out where the current strikes are. One can also look at Ventusky.com under precipitation within the last hour, where lightning strikes show up as white dots, but if one zooms in they become like short white lines that zigzag. Some weather services also provide forecasts of lightning activity and the expected cloud cover, like this page covering Europe: Sat24.com where a front with lightning activity is moving east. The colors are explained below the map, with more red meaning more activity.
Sat24.com.png
It looks like tonight at 23:00 Central European Summer Time, one might have a chance in South Western Europe, as well as over and from the Mediterranean Sea. In the situation above, we don't know if the conditions build up sufficient electrical charge. In order to get much on camera and confirm a glimpse, one would need to be filming or actively taking pictures from a suitable place at the right time, as the duration is very short, so far at least.

If you ever catch a nice image, or would like to see recent images of what others share, there is an updated FB page for International Observers of Upper-Atmospheric Electric Phenomena
 
Live map with current strikes in Europe.

MeteoPyrenees
6:53 PM · Sep 25, 2021
Nombreux orages En cours en Béarn, Gers, au sud de Toulouse et en Andorra actuellement Soyez prudents ce soir ils pourront être forts
Many thunderstorms In progress in Béarn, Gers, south of Toulouse and in Andorra currently Be careful tonight they can be strong
https://meteopyrenees.fr/observations/ #orages

FAJU2c5WYAMexv2


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DESERT LIGHTNING - Dreamy Drone & Time Lapse Photography
Pecos Hank Premiered Sep 9, 2021 4K

2021 Severe weather awareness week Tuesday - Lightning
National Weather Service Data / Maps
  • About 23 million cloud-to-ground lightning strikes occur each year in the U.S., with approximately 290,000 of them occurring in Wyoming each year.
  • Over the last 30 years (1984-2014), the U.S. has averaged 51 lightning fatalities per year.
  • Only about 10% of people struck by lightning are actually killed. The other 90% must cope with varying degrees of discomfort and disability, sometimes for the rest of their lives.
  • Lightning is responsible for more deaths and injuries across Wyoming each year than from any other thunderstorm phenomena. From 1996 to 2020, lightning has been attributed to 8 fatalities and 71 injuries across Wyoming.
  • Wyoming was 1st in number of lightning deaths & injuries per capita (1959 to 2017). There were a total of 30 deaths in Wyoming, for a rank of 35th for number of deaths.
  • Since 1995, all of the lightning fatalities in Wyoming have occurred in the mountains.
Lightning Myths and Facts 1-of-7
Myth: If it's not raining or there aren't any clouds overhead, you're safe from lightning.
Fact: Lightning often strikes several miles from the center of a thunderstorm, far outside the rain or thunderstorm cloud. In fact, "bolts from the blue" can strike as far as 10 miles out from the parent thunderstorm. That's why it's important to seek shelter at the first indication of a thunderstorm and stay there until 30 minutes after the last clap of thunder.
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https://twitter.com/x/status/1442103839922946057
The disturbance is moving away towards Italy at the beginning of the afternoon. Few sectors of the southern half will have passed through #orages between yesterday and today. The highest density of lightning is between Gard, Ardèche, Drôme and Vaucluse.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1442117234894254081
Illustration of last night's thunderstorms in Ardèche with nearby impacts causing a short-circuit, captured by Raphaël Proust (turn up the volume).
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It farted a bit last night around the Rhone Valley ... Turn up the volume!#Orage

https://twitter.com/x/status/1442094248505995266
09/26/2021 at 1:45 p.m .: The violence of the occasional storm that hit the West #AlpesMaritimes a few minutes ago like here since #Mougins (06). This storm is evacuated towards the Niçoise region (& the east of the Alpes-Maritimes) and extends to the open sea.#Nice06#Meteo06

https://twitter.com/x/status/1442121779565244416
 
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