03.10.11

Upward Lightning

Posted in General News at 8:00 am by Rebekah

Yesterday I went to a very interesting seminar on the extreme weather events lately in Australia, and how they may be tied to La Niña, natural climate variability, and climate change. I took some notes from the talk and plan on writing up a summary of the seminar for the blog next week.

Today I just want to give you a taste of one of the many projects I’m working on in the lightning research group at OU.

Lately I’ve been analyzing a lightning flash that got my attention last July. While coming back from a chase in northern Oklahoma on July 11th, I saw a lightning stroke that went from the ground to the cloud. I know this type of lightning occurs in areas with tall towers, but I had never seen this with my own eyes before. Now I’m looking at lightning data for the storm and also looking into studying upward-going lightning in other storms, as well as studying up on the literature on the subject as I don’t know much about it.

Captured with my HD camcorder.

2 Comments

  1. John Langlois said,

    March 11, 2011 at 6:09 am

    Rebekah:
    You left a comment on my stamp blog in the past 24 hours. Go to my other blog on Kenya – http://kenyaworkbook.blogspot.com/. Scroll to the bottom of the page and you will find a shot of lightning over Lake Victoria.
    John

  2. Rebekah said,

    March 11, 2011 at 12:45 pm

    Awesome! Thanks for the link to your blog. You take incredible photos!