+90kA positive lightning strike and explosive thunder, 23/10/2022

A nearby positive lightning strike during a squall line MCS/QLCS in Farnham, Surrey. This storm produced a tornado, and even struck Peter Andre's house with lightning

[@RadioTrefoil]

Great vid, I love these. I notice with these high amp strikes there is usually an audible click that coincides with the flash. I assume that it could be the EM pulse interfering with the camera, but I have heard it in person too before explosive thunder.

[@Tstorms]

I heard it in person too, I think it was from the telephone poles

[@aerynventress7702]

That's the first thing I thought of reading your comment and now that you mention it I've heard it too. Fascinating phenomenon.

[@AdhamOhm]

Probably "upward leaders" trying to make contact with the main lightning bolt. Upward leaders will sometimes look like miniature lightning bolts traveling upward from the ground and they'll make clicking or snapping noises.
Almost all lightning strikes will have upward leaders, but the big multi-amp positive strikes will have upward leaders emerging from objects miles out from the bolt. Last summer I was watching a storm and a positive bolt hit about a mile away, and I heard a loud crack coming from my roof at the exact same time as the flash (the boom of the thunder came about 5 seconds later). I assumed it was an upward leader coming from one the roof gutters.

[@insanestorms5176]

0:08 super bright

[@joshs4594]

Over a mile away. Mother Nature, flexing her muscles. 💪🌩

[@quantumcat7673]

I wonder how you measured or evaluated the current (>90kA) of the lightning strike?

[@Tstorms]

@@quantumcat7673 Lightning peak currents are estimated by lightning detectors, using range normalised signal strength. You can see detected strokes and their peak currents here meteologix.com/lightning
I believe the source of their data for Europe is ALDIS.at

[@muffinman8744]

That little click sound before you heard the thunder.You were so close to death.

[@Tstorms]

The stroke was definitely too close for comfort, that click was from an induced overvoltage in the power lines nearby

[@paulknightley]

@@Tstorms Just over a mile away, from the flash to the start of the thunder (~6 seconds) - so not too far!

[@maxik444]

cg+ sound

[@pipoo1]

Don’t know if you experienced the full force of this storm but living in the Heathrow area it was honestly insane. Closest thing to a derecho we’ll probably ever see in the UK. One of the best daytime storms I’ve ever seen and without a shadow of a doubt the best storm of 2022.

[@Tstorms]

It was a crazy storm, big bowing QLCS, although I narrowly dodged the strongest damaging wind gusts. I saw reports of a tornado in the next county over though!! The storm was so fast moving too, this lightning strike came just minutes after the first distant rumbles on the horizon.

[@DonkeyKong1195]

I like that you include the kA in the title. Keep it up!

[@suchti7654]

The only thing I know is that I would NOT want to live in that neighbourhood, with all those dogs lol

[@celeno31]

shared

[@MPDTransport]

Scary 😰

[@touhouguyII]

Hey buddy sorry to burn your circus tent down but that was not positive lightning

[@Tstorms]

It was detected by ALDIS/EUCLID as a +90kA positive stroke

[@touhouguyII]

@@Tstorms cool

[@Moxie.Blacksmith]

I heard this click today, so I am here through some random reddit posts where people have listed videos of the click and wondering how its built up. Scary stuff! Good video capture of it :)