Lightning Website

[Waltherfan]

Cool website shamelessly stolen from a different forum 

Especially relevant with tonights scheduled activities:

http://www.lightningmaps.org/realtime

The circle expanding from a new strike is supposed to be the thunder soundwave.

[shooter]

Last night on the news, they showed the earth from the space station station,  was the top of a thunder storm, really wild looking

[FarmerRick]

The Weather Undergound radar features a lightning indicator as well.  http://www.wunderground.com/weather-radar/united-states/ne/omaha-valley/oax/?region=lbf

Dew points are still pretty low in our area, 44* in Omaha and not above 50* until you go as far south as Manhattan, KS. That's not exactly ideal for thunderstorm development. 

[Mali]

Last night on the news, they showed the earth from the space station station,  was the top of a thunder storm, really wild looking

Not completely related to lighting, but here is a link to the ISS HD Earth Viewing project on UStream: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/iss-hdev-payload

Great feed from HD cams on the ISS.

Use this site (http://www.isstracker.com/) to determine if the ISS is on the night side and showing the black screen.

[farmerbob]

http://www.nebraska.tv/category/222068/video-landing-page?clipId=11343130&clipFormat=flv&topVideoCatNo=102581


What kinda lighting is this?

[Mali]

They graduated from black helicopters to black spaceships?

[wcr]

Lightning is classified as:
ic - In Cloud - lightning appears to stay in the cumulonimbus (CB)CB  cloud that produced it.
cc - Cloud to Cloud - lightning travels across the sky from one CB to another.
cg - Cloud to Ground - lightning travels from the CB cloud to the ground.

That looks like a  line of CBs with ic  (in cloud) lightning firing off within each cell.
No streaks of lightning traveling across the sky from one CB cell to another and no lightning
going from CB to ground.   Each CB cell appears to be lighting up then going dark.
Pretty far off and could change as it gets closer with better visibility. 
wcr:  20 years Weather Observer/Forecaster USAF (retd)

[wcr]

Forgot to mention you can get multiple types of lightning from a single clould so for instance you could get a  a CB with a LTICCC - in cloud and cloud to cloud.

There are also some other rare types of ligtning (ball lightning, St. Elmo's Fire, etc.)

[farmerbob]

http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/2015/04/ufo-shoots-out-of-storm-in-alma.html?m=1

Here is the video.

[OnTheFly]

http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/2015/04/ufo-shoots-out-of-storm-in-alma.html?m=1

Here is the video.

I'm sure you have heard someone say "It is all relative".  It is VERY possible that this "UFO" which appears to be streaking across the sky was simply a stationary object hanging from an elevated object (power lines?) that appears to have motion because of the movement of the camera.

Fly

[farmerbob]

I've seen stories where ball lighting will travel along power lines, but who knows?

[farmerbob]

Some of the best ideas from fb.

Haven't you seen twister it's obviously a cow, another cow.

It's a Dementor from Azkaban.

[farmerbob]

Fly theory sounds very possible except, from people that know the area say there are no power lines there.

[thirtydaZe]

Not completely related to lighting, but here is a link to the ISS HD Earth Viewing project on UStream: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/iss-hdev-payload

Great feed from HD cams on the ISS.

Use this site (http://www.isstracker.com/) to determine if the ISS is on the night side and showing the black screen.

wow, that is just awesome.  thanks.

[OnTheFly]

Could be a flock of birds, smoke from another semi, etc, etc, etc.

Fly

[farmerbob]

You are probably right Fly

[ILoveCats]

There are also some other rare types of ligtning (ball lightning, St. Elmo's Fire, etc.)

Ball lightning is totally fascinating.  It can range all the way from tiny to godawful gigantic. 

There was a big one in Nebraska a couple years ago that pretty much disintegrated a stretch of barbed wire fence.  In the Bob Ross / Margaret MacKichan Sandhills-based collection of stories, “In the Kingdom of Grass,” Ross describes a miniature ball that floated around a bunkhouse before finding its way into a radio.