| Lightning Photography and Video Footage from Florida Keys & South Florida (c) 2005 - FloridaLightning.com by Martin Kucera All of the following lightning photographs were taken in south Florida and especially the Florida Keys. The type of lightning strike I am particularly interested in is the positive lightning strike. Supposedly, these occur very rarely as opposed to negative lightning strikes that are quite more common. Not a lot of research has been done so far on positive lightning discharges and little is understood about this phenomena. Contrary to the general view that majority of the positive lightning strikes happens elsewhere I firmly believe the Florida Keys is a hot spot for positively charged lightning strikes. Just to explain the difference - a negative lightning strike originates at the bottom portions of the storm cell (negatively charged) whereas a positive lightning strike originates most commonly from the upper levels of the storm cell (not always from the anvil) that are positively charged. Positively charged lightning bolts are usually required to travel greater distances in order to establish a contact with negatively charged Earth surface - sometimes 5 - 10 miles away from the parent thunderstorm. These are also known as "the Superbolts" or "Bolts out of the blue". It is not easy to say for me but the 2005 Storm Season and associated lightning activity has been quite slow so far down here in Florida Keys and unfortunately there is not much time left until the end of October. Well, let`s hope I still can get some more action till then.... |
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