Question for Mets - Blue Lightning

[MomH]

Last evening I was watching streaming video from the Keys. Two of the reporters talked about the lightning. They said though it was not normal in hurricanes it was known to happen. However, they also said that the lightning was blue and seemed to indicate it radiated a bluish light. When the station met was asked about it, he owned up to not knowing why the blue color. Can any of the mets on this board explain?

MomH

[Coredesat]

I'm not a met, but I can say that lightning is more common in hurricanes than those reporters say it is.

[kevin]

Well transformers are green so I don't know.

[Skippyddo]

I'm not a met, but I can say that lightning is more common in hurricanes than those reporters say it is.

I believe she wants to know about blue lightning, which I believe lightning that is blue in color and shoots upwards towards the upper atmosphere, but I could be wrong.

[DoctorHurricane2003]

Actually lightning is not common in hurricanes, but it usually does occur with explosive deepening periods...although Rita is showing an unusually high rate of lightning.

In terms of color...there are two possible explanations for different colored lightning:

1. Atmospheric Effects...bending of the light to a different wavelength.

2. Temperature of the Lightning...causing a different color.

Hope that helps

[jasons2k]

It *MAY* have something to do with the water. Just a guess, but when the sun sets on the horizon, sometimes there is a "green flash" phenomenon and supposedly it has something to do with the light hitting the water at a certain angle.

[temujin]

I saw that lightning all night long over central Maryland when Isabel crossed over as a tropical storm.

I did not see blue lightning last year when I went through hurricanes in Florida.

[Pileus]

On the topic of blue lighting. Have sprites or blue jets ever been observed
above the upper regions of hurricanes ?

[Skippyddo]

Actually lightning is not common in hurricanes, but it usually does occur with explosive deepening periods...although Rita is showing an unusually high rate of lightning.

In terms of color...there are two possible explanations for different colored lightning:

1. Atmospheric Effects...bending of the light to a different wavelength.

2. Temperature of the Lightning...causing a different color.

Hope that helps

actually, the lightning that MOM is referring to occurs much higher in the atmosphere (ionosphere) and are called "blue jets". They are difficult to detect as they only last miliseconds. If Blue Jets or Blue Lightning occurr in canes, it is because the cloud tops are intense and are reach higher in the atmosphere.

[la tempesta]

Maybe it was a blue jet (which is a high altitude form of lightning like red sprites)?


High-altitude lightning: Recently-discovered colored flashes of light high above thunderstorms. Playful names such as "red sprites," "blue jets," and "green elves" have been given to these distincly different forms of lightning. They shoot up from the tops of thunderstorms about the same moment lightning discharges within the storm cloud. Occurring in the middle of the atmosphere, red sprites look like the stems of carrots, while blue jets are small streaks of light with flared ends like the horn of trumpet. Green elves are nearly-invisible, glowing, jellyfish-shaped amoebas that spread across the upper atmosphere.

edited-sorry I had to walk away from the computer with anwer up, by the time I submitted you had the same answers LOL

[MomH]

These fancy colored flashes sound interesting but the met ask the reporters if it was cloud/cloud or cloud/ground. They replied cloud/ground.