Just like the previous shot of aerial filaments, we were located on the northwest side of a band of elevated thunderstorms, although the cloud-to-air lightning discharges weren’t quite as frequent in this event. I call this the “hanging” filament because the lightning appears to dangle from the surrounding cloud material, as if it wished to reach ground but gave up along the way. In truth, this was just one minor tendril of a much larger electrical discharge, mostly internal to the thunderstorm, that happened to reach into cloud-free air. A separate in-cloud lightning flash illuminated more distant convective clouds in the background, at left, in this time exposure. The green grass and forbs were so readily visible thanks to the parking lot lights of a newly constructed store to the left (north).
Great Bend KS (15 Jun 9) Looking ESE
38.3578, -98.7883
Hanging Aerial Filament
Just like the previous shot of aerial filaments, we were located on the northwest side of a band of elevated thunderstorms, although the cloud-to-air lightning discharges weren’t quite as frequent in this event. I call this the “hanging” filament because the lightning appears to dangle from the surrounding cloud material, as if it wished to reach ground but gave up along the way. In truth, this was just one minor tendril of a much larger electrical discharge, mostly internal to the thunderstorm, that happened to reach into cloud-free air. A separate in-cloud lightning flash illuminated more distant convective clouds in the background, at left, in this time exposure. The green grass and forbs were so readily visible thanks to the parking lot lights of a newly constructed store to the left (north).
Great Bend KS (15 Jun 9) Looking ESE
38.3578, -98.7883