Ice alligning with an electrical field.

[Mesoscale]

Heres a weird one for you lot, apparently this is ice crystals being alligned by the electrical field of the thunderstorm?

 

 

The answer lies in this: ice crystals, especially long needles, tend to become aligned with the ambient electric field.

So what you are seeing is sunlight reflecting off ice crystal faces that are constantly being oriented by the developing electric field just above the [cumulonimbus] top. Then there is a discharge in the cloud, and the field collapses momentarily, and the crystals begin to realign again. Then this just keeps happening over and over. ~Joel Gratz

 

 

[4wd]

This must be worth watching for in our current showery spell - however I think sun and observer will need to be in just the right spot to see the effect.