A small, weak cluster of elevated thunderstorms moved through Huntsville just after 10AM with a few lightning flashes. This particular flash initiated at 10:20:35 AM CDT (15:20:35 UTC 4/20/24) to the east and propagated westward into camera view. A positive branch is visible first before it cuts-off and redevelops as a positive IC flash. The negative leaders inside the cloud trigger upward positive leaders from the WAFF tower. They appear to follow underneath where the negative leaders traveled until connecting with the positive leaders from the cloud flash, causing a polarity reversal and current spike at the tower.
The NLDN detected 23 events from this flash, including what appeared to be an upward flash from a different tower off-camera. Unfortunately, no events were detected at the WAFF tower, likely due to the very unusual path of the grounded channel.
EQUIPMENT I USE:
Nikon D5300 DSLR
Sony CyberShot RX100V
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YI 4K Action Camera
Model YAS. 1616.INT
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Samsung Galaxy S9 Smartphone
Sony Stereo Digital Voice Recorder
Model ICD-UX570
Video editing done using Shotcut
Lightning information provided by Vaisala's National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) through weather.us/lightning. Note that I only use this information to roughly estimate stroke intensity and distance, the data may be prone to error on my end and my work is not, and should not be considered to be, a formal evaluation of the NLDN's performance.
Thanks to Tom A. Warner and other lightning physicists and researchers who have helped me understand lightning processes explained in my videos. Tom has created a great resource for individuals interested in learning how lightning works.
ztresearch.blog/education/