Green Lightning

[Piscivore]

Last night was the second time I've seen green lightning. The first time was ball lightning that skittered across a field, the second was last night in a freak downpour that lasted about 10 minutes and was otherwise the regular sky-to-ground kind. Anyone seen/heard of/know something about this?

[Madalch]

Wasn't that the song from "Grease", that you now have oh-so-annoyingly planted in my head?

[Buckaroo]

Couldn't say for sure, but I'd guess that the green comes from the same oxygen emission line that makes auroras glow that color. Dunno why it wouldn't happen more often, though, if that's the case...

[mhaze]

Green Lightning. Stephenson, H.H: Nature, 120:695, 1927.

"During a thunderstorm last night (Ontario, Oct. 7, 1927) a flash of lightning started from the top white, and about half way down turned to a vivid green."

I doubt you could publish it in Nature today; but it would be fun to send it in saying you have found additional evidence of this odd phenomena they previously cited.:)

[Nick Bogaerts]

Last night was the second time I've seen green lightning. The first time was ball lightning that skittered across a field

Isn't Will O' The Wisp often greenish? I'm still not convinced of the existence of ball lightning as a distinct phenomenon.

[Fnord]

While living on the Great Plains, I was able to witness some intensely red lightning near the horizon. The after-image was, of course, green.

I wonder if the original stroke you witnessed was an intense red, or had a high level of near infrared content, and that it was the after-image that your conscious mind registered? May never know for certain...

Otherwise, I've seen green lightning during a December snowstorm in Michigan. Wierd ... very weird.

[Puppycow]

Hmm. Dunno, but I did a google image search for green lightning (didn't find much) and ball lightning (found a picture of greenish lightning, but not many convincing pictures of ball lightning):
http://www.pti-us.com/pti/consulting/distribution/images/burn1.jpg
This one looks a bit green at the bottom, doesn't it.

This is the best-looking picture I could find of ball lightning, but I'm not convinced it's genuine:
http://www.conspiracyarchive.com/images/ball-lightning.jpg

[Ysidro]

I swear I've heard of green lightning before, but even with me racking my brain I can't come up with where or when.

Wish I could have seen it though. I don't even think I've ever seen ball lightning.

[NobbyNobbs]

While driving up the coast of Maine one year a few summers back, we followed a thunderstorm for quite awhile. There were zillions of lightning flashes...about one every second or two for an hour and a half. As we were outside the storm the whole way, we had a great view.

I noticed at one point that most of the lightning strikes to the left side of the road looked normal, but the ones on the right side had a definite greenish-yellow tinge to it.

Lacking any other knowledge about freakish weather phenomena, I came up with the theory that off to the right, the lightning may have been zapping (ionizing?) the salt in the air, being over the ocean. I figured that since salt is made of sodium and chlorine, and since I knew chlorine in its pure form is a greenish gas, this may explain the color of the lightning.

I'm sure people here will rip my theory to pieces, but I felt quite smart for having come up with it anyway.

[Southwind17]

It's just the environmentalists again poking their conducting rods in. It was only a matter of time before they got around to lightning. Get used to it!

[steve s]

This is the best-looking picture I could find of ball lightning, but I'm not convinced it's genuine:


Definitely looks fake. Just a long exposure with someone running around with a light source. Notice how it passes in front of the telephone pole.

Steve S.

[Cuddles]

There is little doubt that ball lightning exists, although whether it is a single phenomenon or lots of different ones is open for debate.

This article (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1720-ball-lightning-scientists-remain-in-the-dark.html) has a picture of natural ball lightning.
This one (http://www.newscientist.com/channel/fundamentals/mg19325863.500-lightning-balls-created-in-the-lab.html) has artificial lightning, as does this one ("http://www.newscientist.com/channel/fundamentals/dn9293-physicists-create-great-balls-of-fire.html). It doesn't necessarily answer how it does occur naturally, but it does show that it can occur.

A search for "ball lightning" on Google images throws up some pretty pictures.

Edit: I agree with Steve S that that picture looks fake.