Blue Lightning

[spikess]

does anyone know anything about blue lighting?

i had an experience once when i was younger with my mother and neither of us have ever seen anything like it before!

sorry..i really should have done a search, but im a bit busy the now

 

[Pete Younger]

I didn't think it was a real phenomenon, just something you say like, "he moved like blue lightning".

 

[spikess]

well...i was talking about it in chat, and sidcar_jon and faggus were thinking that maybe my mother and i assumed it was blue because it struck so close..

i did a search but i really cant find anything

 

[Anonymous]

The phrase 'blue lightning' appears in a number of contexts, but the only meteorological ones seem to be in reference to rare and very transient upper atmosphere phenomena that have only recently been observed.

The puzzling question is why 'blue lightning' has become such a popular phrase? Do a search and you'll find out just how popular.

All I can think of is that its a corruption somewhere along the line of 'bolt from the blue', which has a long history - see

http://www.bartleby.com/81/2201.html

 

[spikess]

yeah, i noticed all the blue lightning results when i finally got round to doing a search..just a pity i could actually find one to help me..

blue lightning cant be that rare can it?? it was definatly blue lightning that nearly struck my mother an me

 

[Anonymous]

I would say blue lightning definitely exists. While holidaying with my family at Butlin's Minehead about fifteen years ago, we witnessed a blue lightning storm that lasted most of the night.

It was very similar to an electrical charge jumping from cloud to cloud and there wasn't a great deal of thunder either.

I remember it vividly, we sat outside our crappy chalet hoping to miss "The Bernie Winters Show".

 

[Jerry_B]

I once saw lightning of various different hues. This was during a very violent thunderstorm that I was watching as it took place just of the French north coast back in 1981 (IIRC). Pinks, oranges, blues, all sorts of colours. The colours were obvious as the storm took place at night. I was on a school trip at the time, and one of the accompanying teachers said it was probably down to a refractive effect. I also saw lightning coimg up from the sea, in large tree-like patterns.

 

[Anonymous]

A number of years ago my mom and I were just getting into the car in the middle of a thunder storm. Just as we shut the door, the car was hit by what we assumed to be lightning. It was blue and turned the clock on for a second. Ever since then I thought that blueish lightning was normal. I guess I was wrong. Then again maybe we weren't hit by lightning....