Spectacular Lightning Photos From Around the World
Flash-bang. See it often? See these scary yet beautiful sights from around the world.
Did you know there are 16 million lightning storms every year? 1 MJ (joule) in ever day life translates to the amount of energy needed to lift a small apple one metre straight up. An average bolt of lightning carries an electric current of 40 kiloamperes (kA) (although some bolts can be up to 120 kA), and transfers a charge of five coulombs and 500 MJ. Imagine what amount of energy our scientists can harness and store when lightning storms occur! It will help with our energy problem.
Ranked number one in the world for the highest number of lightning strikes is the mountains of eastern Democratic Rebublic of the Congo.
When we get rain here in Singapore, we not only get rain like the rest of the world, we get electrical storms.
Living in Singapore, we are ranked the second highest rate of lightning activity in the world after the mountains of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The flash of lightning precedes the clap of thunder. This has caused me a number of inconvenience like recently, a thunder storm just last week knocked out the electricity in our entire building (as well as my computer!).
The peak period of thunder storms being April/May and November, annually there are about 171 thunder storm days in Singapore.
Ranked third is the city of Teresina in northern Brazil, the surrounding region is referred to as the Chapada do Corisco meaning Flash Lightning Flatlands. In the US, Central Florida has the most lightning activity than an other area. Did you know the Empire State Building is struck by lightning on an average 23 times each year?
Lightning over Oradea in Romania.
According to Uman ((1986), chapter 4, pages 26-34) flying aircraft can also trigger lightning.
Somewhere in Deventer, the Netherlands
Summer thunderstorm over Wejherowo in Poland
Lightning in Temesvar – Romania
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22 Responses to “Spectacular Lightning Photos From Around the World”
On June 24, 2008 at 4:27 am
Awesome shots of lightening and you have already seen what it can do to computers. Great to have you back and really cool article.
On June 24, 2008 at 4:28 am
Great light show…….. Spectacular photos.
Great information regarding lightning.
On June 24, 2008 at 4:50 am
Cool article with beautiful pictures of lightning.
On June 24, 2008 at 6:48 am
fantastic! a horrendous work of art! thanks for sharing sir!
On June 24, 2008 at 7:28 am
Awful pictures, yet attractive.
On June 24, 2008 at 7:41 am
Those were amazing photos! Thanks for sharing
On June 24, 2008 at 8:33 am
Lightening is one of the most beneficial natural phenomena on our planet. Each discharge emits heavy concentrations of ozone, which replenishes our atmosphere and kills off negative bacteria in the contact area of static discharge. Its the planets way of keeping balance and harmony for a continued healthy existence.
On June 24, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Beautiful photos and there isn’t much I can add to that but one observation that I would like to point out, lightening can be dangerous and frightening but it makes me feel so small and insignificant when I see the beauty and the greatness of nature.
On June 24, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Hi Quail, Mystical Whitewolf, RamTsam, Ione, Unofre, Abby Rose, S108 and Carmen
THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR COMMENTS
On June 24, 2008 at 10:12 pm
…Hi , magnificent pictures, great write-up,
thanks for the good work. Makes me feel like
painting a few abstracts. Take care.
On June 24, 2008 at 10:16 pm
…Hi , magnificent pictures, great write-up,
thanks for the good work. Makes me feel like
painting a few abstracts. Take care.
On June 24, 2008 at 11:49 pm
Hi Quiet Voice,
Fantastic that you can paint, I can’t paint to save my life… LOL…
Thanks for your encouragement
On June 25, 2008 at 4:36 pm
amazing pictures,nice post,we also experience lots of lightnings here in my country, the sad thing is, scores of people are getting killed every year due to lightning struck,thanks Rachel,
On June 25, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Hi Nobert
Thank you for dropping by
On June 29, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Wow… You weren’t kidding when you said spectacular!
On June 30, 2008 at 12:30 am
Hi Autumnrose
Thanks for dropping by
On July 8, 2008 at 2:45 pm
The picture of the jet in the lightning storm is quite something! Can’t imagine how terrifying it must be to fly through an electrical storm.
On August 7, 2008 at 1:41 pm
I really enjoyed this article..I can’t believe how great those shots are!..thank you for sharing..
On August 8, 2008 at 3:03 am
Hi Catherine and JD
You are welcome. Thanks for your support.
On May 8, 2009 at 1:50 am
Dear Rachel,
I love Singapore and one of the reasons is the hot and humid weather with plenty of Thunderstorms. I hope once to be able to spent long periods in the nice city, this is one of my biggest dreams,
So long,
Maarten Brandtr
brandt1@chello.nl
On June 24, 2009 at 9:54 am
Hi Maarten
Thank you for dropping by.
Singapore is now experiencing cooler weather, yep, thunderstorms almost daily, you’d enjoy them – loud and cool.
On March 3, 2010 at 12:55 pm
Really cool pictures! Saw this when I was doing my papers on wind turbines and I didnt know singapore has hell lots of lightning!! Bad for turbines =( anyway great pictures!!
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