STRIKING
Storm chaser captures slow motion footage of rarely-seen upside down lightning
Fewer than one in 100 lightning bolts travels upwards
RARE upside down lightning has been captured in slow motion footage by a 'storm chaser'.
Freak weather in Texas produced the backwards lightning flashes which lasted about half a second in real time but can be seen clearly in the video.
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Veteran photographer Dan Robinson observed the backwards bolts lightning up the sky.
Robinson has been travelling to document events like this for the past 26 years and heads into storms on a regular basis to capture this kind of footage.
Lightning which travels upwards is normally triggered by an initial lightening bolt coming down from the clouds.
This initial bolt results in an electrical field change which cause upward lightning to be triggered from a ground-based object like a building or mobile mast.
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What is lightning?
- Lightning is formed when water and ice move around inside a cloud
- Like when rubbing a balloon creates static electricity, the particles rubbing together in the cloud form an electrical charge
- The charges separate in the cloud with the positive charges moving up and the negative charges moving down
- Once the charges have been separated for a significant amount of time, pressure builds for them to rush back together
- A pathway is created where the charges can come back together and this pathway forms a spark which neutralises the charge in the cloud
- When the negative charges race downwards the surrounding air heats up and creates a shock wave which is the lightning that we see
Wind storms can cause upside lightning from tall objects without the need for an initial downwards bolt.
It is thought that less than 1% of lightening travels upwards.
Robinson wrote on his blog: "My goal is to capture nature's dramatic side, and in doing so, provide visitors to this site with educational information and exciting photography/video about severe storms and extreme weather."
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