Lightning question

[Drew.Gardonia]

While shooting lightning the other night, I noticed several times during some of the bigger flashes, a large portion of the sky in that direction (to the north) would turn a weird eerie shade of green. It was kinda like the green you see with hail during a thunderstorm during the day, but this was a bit brighter (presumably because of the lightning). I was driving when it happened and never did get a picture because I didn't see it again. Interestingly enough off to the east, when big lighting would flash, the sky lit up a weird eerie shade of blue.

has anyone seen something like this before? Wish I could have gotten a picture. Is it hail? or light reflecting from something and being reflected back off the clouds? I've never seen anything like it before in my entire life so my curiosity has been piqued as to what it was.

 

[Skip Talbot]

It's probably just various wavelengths of light from the cloud to cloud lightning being filtered out as the light passes through clouds and precipitation in a similar process that makes precipitation cores appear green.

 

[Drew.Gardonia]

It's probably just various wavelengths of light from the cloud to cloud lightning being filtered out as the light passes through clouds and precipitation in a similar process that makes precipitation cores appear green.

would that apply to the blue as well?

 

[Skip Talbot]

Blue, purple, orange, green... lightning comes in a myriad of colors. Like sunlight, I'm guessing lightning covers the full spectrum of visible light, in other words it starts out as white light. Various wavelengths of the light are then canceled out as the light travels through the atmosphere. You see this with the sun's light too, which is also a white light with a slightly yellow bias. The setting sun is red and orange and distant lightning often appears red or orange. Sunlight filtering through a thunderstorm is often blue or green, and likewise with the light from cloud to cloud lightning in overhead storms.

 

[Dan Robinson]

These are usually flashovers (lightning-triggered arcing) from strikes to power lines. They are pretty common in urban areas.

http://stormhighway.com/powerflash.shtml

 

[Drew.Gardonia]

These are usually flashovers (lightning-triggered arcing) from strikes to power lines. They are pretty common in urban areas.

http://stormhighway.com/powerflash.shtml

they were too high up in the clouds to be powerlines.

 

[STexan]

I love lightning and it's myriad of types and effects. Not sure about the reasoning behind what you were seeing other than different refractive amounts due to larger rain drops, smaller rain drops, lesser rain, different cloud densities, who knows? Not to hijack the thread but in a related line of questioning ... in NE OK, the day after the Joplin tornado, I was roaming around waiting on the next outbreak and I saw a beautiful ground strike about 2 miles ahead of me, I travelled about another mile towards the strike over a period of perhaps 60-70 seconds, and saw another identical lightning strike that I concluded struck in virtually the same identical spot, and even had the same "signature". I could not actually see the ground at either of these strike locations as they were just beyond small terrain rises and just out of sight and I can't say if there was a particular "object" that drew the strikes. Coincidence, phenomenon, or some rational and scientific occurrence? I've seen the double-stroke strikes but these occurred minutes apart.

 

[Paul Knightley]

Perhaps anvil crawlers hidden behind the actual cloudmass? If you didn't see the actual lightning path directly, then it's likely that the light has been 'processed' by the cloud matter, as Skip mentioned above.

 

[TrumanBoyer]

Eye Effects

Also keep in mind that, especially at nighttime, that your pupils are open wider, and the retinas have a more pronounced "persistence of vision" effect. (since there is less ambient light)

You have probably seen the optical illusion where you stare at a "color negative" of an American flag for 30 seconds, and then you stare at a piece of white paper and see the good old red, white and blue.

I often wonder how this "photo negative" effect might have an influence on colors we see during nighttime lightning flashes.

I have seen brilliant red scenes under a low cloud base at sunset, when I looked toward dark areas I saw a sort of "transparent" green.

I am not saying that this is definitely what you saw, but be aware of the possibility when you observe at nighttime. Rainbow diffraction often does happen (very cool), but sudden light flashes make for some cool color effects (on your retinas) as well. I wonder if you caught it on camera if it would capture the green, -that would settle the matter.

I am a self-taught astronomer, and I learned a lot about eye effects, and I pay real close attention to things that are happening
"inside the eye".

Here's one observation.
While driving at night,
staring straight forward at an illuminated area that vanishes into a point in the lower part of your field of vision,
-illuminated power lines overhead narrowing and pointing downward toward the vanishing point-
your retinas retain that sort of "cone of light",
but as a photo negative, close your eyes for a second (not if you're behind the wheel !) and you can see it.

When you look around at clouds, that subtle cone shape is still imprinted on your retinas, but you don't notice it because everything is dark, and since your eye is naturally trying to follow lines of shadow and light...

Ever wonder why everything looks like a funnel at nighttime ?
I wonder if that might be part of the reason....