RARE Self-Initiated Upward Lightning, Plus Triple Tower Flash! Slow Motion Lightning 2-22-24
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 ก.พ. 2024
- A weakening cluster of storms moved through the Huntsville area in the evening and early overnight on February 22, 2024. Much to my surprise, the 1,510 ft. WAFF-TV transmitter was hit by lightning four times in under three minutes! Unfortunately I missed the first two of the flashes, but captured the 3rd and 4th flashes on my Sony. From the video, we can see that the 4th flash was preceded by in-cloud brightening and the 3rd flash was not. The 4th flash was lightning-triggered upward lightning, and the 3rd flash was self-initiated upward lightning. The lightning-triggered variant is the dominant form of upward lightning seen in videos, including all of my other captures.
Since self-initiated upward lightning is purely spontaneous without any triggering source, we believe that they require a very strong electric field at the top of the initiating structure along with high tip-relative wind (either via ambient wind or object motion, i.e. wind turbine blade) that removes shielding corona discharge, allowing for further electric field enhancement. While the wind at the surface was not too strong, an inspection of 915 MHz wind profiler data at UAH a few miles to the west of the tower revealed 40-45 mph winds between 500 and 1000 m above instrument level where the top of the WAFF-TV tower is located.
I was able to obtain audio from the first two events, and this data along with my visual observation suggests that the first two events may also have been self-initiated upward flashes. The second event may have also terminated at a new ground location to the SE of the tower based on my visual observation and NLDN data.
Flash times and NLDN data (Time Zone CST; -0600 UTC):
Flash 1 (not in video): 00:10:20 (time estimated; no NLDN detections)
Flash 2 (not in video): 00:11:24 (five cloud pulses from -3 to -11 kA detected SE of tower)
Flash 3: 00:12:29 (four cloud pulses from -6 to -10 kA; misclassified return strokes at tower)
Flash 4: 00:13:36 (one -54 kA CG return stroke at tower)
Estimated surface temperature and dew point during event: 54F, 51F.
EQUIPMENT I USE:
Nikon D5300 DSLR
Sony CyberShot RX100V
www.sony.com/electronics/cameras
YI 4K Action Camera
Model YAS. 1616.INT
www.yitechnology.com/
Samsung Galaxy S9 Smartphone
Sony Stereo Digital Voice Recorder
Model ICD-UX570
Video editing done using Shotcut
Lightning information provided by Vaisala's National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) through weather.us/lightning. Note that I only use this information to roughly estimate stroke intensity and distance, the data may be prone to error on my end and my work is not, and should not be considered to be, a formal evaluation of the NLDN's performance.
Thanks to Tom A. Warner and other lightning physicists and researchers who have helped me understand lightning processes explained in my videos. Tom has created a great resource for individuals interested in learning how lightning works.
ztresearch.blog/education/
Thank you for your interest in this video. always pray for those who watch this video and read these things, you and those around you are always lucky and safe.
Fantastic capture!! 🌩
Impressive!
素晴らしい映像と音声をありがとうございます！ごちそうさまでした
ありがとう！