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The colours of lightning


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Posted
  • Location: winscombe north somerset
  • Weather Preferences: action weather
  • Location: winscombe north somerset

Very interesting discussion gang ,I can remember many years ago during a thunder snow event witnessing a greenish pinkish lightning ,probably caused by precipitation being of the frozen kind ,but there must be many reasons why lightning is different colours .

I have read about storms in remote places where its usually dry and not that much pollution around that the lightning is very orangy but the further away from the source a greeny blue .

well lets hope we see some come this friday ,any colour will doo ,cheers . :drinks:

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Posted
  • Location: Leicester (LE3)
  • Location: Leicester (LE3)

Very interesting, does the colour of the lightning, if caused by its temperature, effect the sound of the thunder? Sometimes people report out of the ordinarily loud thunder or long thunder or short thunder.... Or no heard thunder at all?

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Posted
  • Location: Failsworth, Manchester - alt: 93m
  • Weather Preferences: Hot sunshine and thunderstorms. Mild in winter.
  • Location: Failsworth, Manchester - alt: 93m

Very interesting, does the colour of the lightning, if caused by its temperature, effect the sound of the thunder? Sometimes people report out of the ordinarily loud thunder or long thunder or short thunder.... Or no heard thunder at all?

 

Not sure, but it could be very possible.

 

Supposedly, hotter lightning will heat up the air around it to a higher temperature, causing it to expand more violently leading to a larger shockwave and louder thunder. That's my theory.

Edited by Thunderbolt_
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  • 1 year later...
Posted
  • Location: NW Bexley, Kent
  • Weather Preferences: Storms, rain, tornados, funnel clouds and the northern lights
  • Location: NW Bexley, Kent

Just saw this thread and am admittedly very late to the party. I have witnessed purple, pink, orange, blue, white and green fork lightning before. When you tell people who are not knowledgeable or informed about weather about this they don't believe you! Its nice to see some proof of this at last.

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  • 1 year later...
  • 1 year later...

You find gasses, mineral or metal  can influence colour in a lot of ways(some light bulbs have diffident gases, mineral or metal most notable in HIDs ark lamps) even a gas>  light spectrum shift if you viewing throw  such large volumes of gas
if you have a good wind that can get things like minerals or metals in dust form up into the atmosphere along with heavy industry 

Edited by hi_tech_guy_18
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Posted
  • Location: Sheffield
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms
  • Location: Sheffield

A lot of it seems to be the distance from lightning, and the amount of atmospheric particles between you and the lightning determines the amount of refraction and the differences in colour. I've seen a storm where videos of it right next to or below it indicated blue/white colours, but from a distance of more than 10 miles the lightning appeared orange due to refraction.

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  • 8 months later...

I now live in Dallas, TX, USA and we have almost nothing but pink/purple lightning with our storms. The local meteorologists say it has mostly to do with the high concentration of pollen that blows in from the Rocky Mtns and across the plains and our pollution levels. Growing up in the Tennessee rurals I only ever remember blue. This time of year we get supercells about once every 10-12 days and even as I type this there is a storm approaching off to the west and it is bright pink fork and dark purple sheet.

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Posted
  • Location: manchester
  • Weather Preferences: Summer
  • Location: manchester

I think lightning is just the same colour everytime - white light, but its just things like dust or mist and other atmospheric conditions that give it the illusion that its a different colour. But never really had chance to look at it for long enough to see what colour it is.

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  • 1 month later...
Posted
  • Location: Kings Norton, West Midlands
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms, Cold & Snowy
  • Location: Kings Norton, West Midlands
On ‎19‎/‎04‎/‎2019 at 02:17, 38.5*C said:

I think lightning is just the same colour everytime - white light, but its just things like dust or mist and other atmospheric conditions that give it the illusion that its a different colour. But never really had chance to look at it for long enough to see what colour it is.

The original post mentions that this is the reason. 

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  • 9 months later...
Posted
  • Location: Mt. Clemens, Michigan
  • Location: Mt. Clemens, Michigan

In the 1970s , between 12:30 and 1:00 a.m we were traveling on I-94 near Ten Mile Rd. in Roseville, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. It was the dark of night. We were completely surrounded in every direction with bolts of orange lightening and there were no sounds.  It was totally eerie.  We anticipated that something big was about to happen.  We exited the interstate at Ten Mile Rd., took care of the errand that we were on, reversed ourselves and went back home, once again through this phenomena of silent orange lightening.  The experts who say there is no silent lightening, have not experienced this phenomena and therefore do not really know what they are talking about.  My wife and I were together and have talked about this for years.  We call is the night of silent orange lightening.

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  • 3 months later...

I remember a couple years ago when we were leaving a theme park near us at around 7:00 PM, it was getting dark and not because it was late, there should've been a decent amount of light left, it was a storm. There still was light, but to the east, because the storm became severe and was coming from the west and I saw quite a few bolts of red lightning and not near the horizon. They were at around a 50 to 70 degree angle up in the clouds. It was the 2nd round of storms of the day (one came earlier an hour or 2 past noon b/c of a warm front, the one later on was the one associated with a cold front) and was near us right as we were leaving the park, and while we were driving home, it hit us, and it was intense. The storm earlier in the day, the hours leading up to when we were about to leave, the shop near exit and treats we bought from the it (we got some stuff there before we left, we always do, it's part of the park and near the entrance), and the intense storm coming towards us as we were there, exiting, and just starting to leave, all added up to a day I will never forget. Perfect timing. Storms always bring excitement to my life.

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